Rimac C_Two Prototype Production Speeds Up With Second Assembly Line

Rimac's recently opened factory in Croatia will be a bit busier going forward. Today, the bespoke electric hypercar maker announced that adding a second production line is "the next stage in the development of the C_Two." The new line will help the company accelerate C_Two prototype production, cutting the build time in half to around five weeks. This will eventually let the company build four production vehicles a month when operating at full capacity.

This is an exciting development, but we're still months away from production cars beginning to arrive with customers. So far, the company has produced just four of the 17 early prototype vehicles it needs for the testing and homologation process. That doesn't include another 10 "pre-series" vehicles. Rimac plans to produce most of them this year, which means deliveries will be delayed. Originally, Rimac had scheduled customer deliveries to begin in late 2020; however, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the company to push that back to sometime in 2021.

Rimac wowed the world when it revealed the C_Two at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The automaker promised a stunning all-electric hypercar that'd develop 1,914 horsepower (1,427 kilowatts). Rimac continues to guarantee a top speed of 258 miles per hour (412 kilometers per hour) with a zero to 62-mph (100-kph) time of 1.9 seconds. A sprint to 100 mph (161 mph) from a standstill will happen in 4.3 seconds. "Engineers are confident the targets will be met," says the automaker.

Waiting longer for such a game-changing EV is never fun, but the C_Two, or whatever Rimac names it, could be well worth the wait. In the meantime, the company does plan to announce the car's official name and reveal its final design later this year. Rimac's production hypercar grabs a lot of the headlines, but the company does work with other automakers, including Porsche, Hyundai, Aston Martin, and Koenigsegg. The C_Two's reveal is just one branch of a very busy tree.