Watch Rimac’s 1,088 HP Concept One EV smoke a Tesla and LaFerrari

By Stephen Edelstein Published August 18, 2016

If you’re an unknown automaker with a brand new supercar in development, one way to win over doubters is to show off your car’s performance in a very dramatic way. Like, say, a drag race.

The Rimac Concept One is an electric supercar from Croatia that has been under development for several years. While it isn’t quite ready to put the Concept One on sale just yet, Rimac decided to show potential buyers what it’s capable of by turning the supercar over to race driver Archie Hamilton, who pitted it against a Ferrari LaFerrari and Tesla Model S P90D with Ludicrous Mode. That should get some attention.

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While the Tesla is unbelievably quick for a heavy luxury sedan, it isn’t quite in the same league as the Concept One, which boasts a claimed 1,088 horsepower and 2,800 pound-feet of torque. Sure enough, the Rimac smokes the Tesla in acceleration tests. What’s more surprising is that the Concept One also beats the 949-hp LaFerrari by what appears to be a significant margin (no hard numbers for either matchup were disclosed).

Read more: Watch an electric van smoke a Tesla and Ferrari in a drag race

Ferrari says its hybrid supercar can do 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds, while Rimac claims 2.6 seconds for the Concept One. That implies that a race between these two monsters should be pretty close, but the video tells a different story. The Concept One’s extra power, instantaneous electric-motor torque, and all-wheel drive (the Ferrari is rear-wheel drive) apparently combined to give it an overwhelming advantage.

This demonstration is not all that meaningful, though, because the Concept One is a very rare car indeed. It was first shown back in 2011, but Rimac is fine tuning the design. It previously said the car would start at $980,000, and it only plans to build eight in the first year of production. That makes the LaFerrari seem about as common as a Honda Accord.

Improbably, the Concept One isn’t even the most extreme Rimac. At the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, Rimac unveiled the Concept S, which it described as the Concept One’s “evil twin.” The Concept S boasts 1,365 hp, and a claimed top speed of 226 mph.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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