The Rimac Nevera is already the fastest electric vehicle (EV) ever produced, having hit a top speed of 258mph (412 km/h). Not content with holding an EV speed record, the team at Rimac have now set another new speed record for any car, electric or otherwise, this time in reverse.
The Rimac Nevera has proven itself as an electric hypercar, having set the EV top speed record in 2022, and beating the Tesla Model S Plaid’s lap record around Nürburgring by 20 seconds. The 1,914-horsepower Nevera also set 23 new acceleration and braking records in a single day last year, including a new 0-400-0 km/h record.
Just when you though the Nevera had set or broken all possible EV performance records, the Rimac team has found a way to set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest speed ever achieved while in reverse.
According to Rimac, the Nevera hit a mind-blowing 275.74km/h (171.34mph) while driving backwards. This kind of speed was of course only possible in an EV, since the drivetrain of the Nevera has no gears, unlike a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) hypercar.
“It occurred to us during development that Nevera would probably be the world’s fastest car in reverse, but we kind of laughed it off. The aerodynamics, cooling and stability hadn’t been engineered for travelling backwards at speed, after all. But then, we started to talk about how fun it would be to give it a shot. Our simulations showed that we could achieve well over 150mph but we didn’t have much of an idea how stable it would be – we were entering unchartered territory,” said Matija Renic, Nevera Chief Program Engineer.
To put the record into perspective, Rimac points out the speed the Nevera achieved in reverse is faster than the 1967 Lamborghini Miura, which was fastest production car in the world at the time with a top speed of 273km/h (170mph).
Giving it a bit more of a current comparison, the Nevera can reach a higher speed in reverse than the Model 3 Performance can going forward, which tops out at 261km/h (162mph).
You can watch the video of the Nevera breaking the speed record in reverse below.
