What is Rimac? You might think this young company, named after founder Mate Rimac, is a car company. It does, after all, claim to be an automaker. But as its actual car production continues at a trickle, it’s obvious Mate’s priority is actually to be a component manufacturer and engineering consulting firm.

A vision and incredible work ethic fueled Mate Rimac’s meteoric rise. At just 19 years old, he began converting a 1984 BMW 3 Series into his first electric performance car. The teenage engineer went viral on social media for his home garage build and drifting videos. He enlisted a team and followed this project with more “test mules” and later prototypes.

Rimac unveiled its “Concept One” in 2016. Mate Rimac promised an 88 vehicle production run. Then in 2018, VW Group bought 10% of Rimac. Rimac unveiled a second car, a “Concept Two” that later became the Nevera. Mate promised a 150 car production run of the Nevera.

In 2021, VW announced that it would fold Rimac Automobili and Bugatti into a single joint venture owned by Porsche and Rimac. Yes, Rimac Automobili–the automaker–is just a subsidary of Mate Rimac’s actual company.

So what does the greater “Rimac Group” do? First off, it doesn’t build many cars.

I was chatting with some other car enthusiasts one day and someone asked, “Wait, has anyone ever seen a Rimac?” I said that I’d seen the video of a Nevera setting all those records. And of course the video of Richard Hammond crashing the Concept One that lit on fire. But no, I’d never seen one at a car meet, even a luxury hypercar meet. No one else had either.

I began to investigate. Remember Rimac’s promised 88 car production run for the Concept One? It cancelled the vehicle after it made eight. That’s right. Eight.

So what about the Nevera? It is in production. Kind of. When Mate Rimac took delivery of his personal Nevera he admitted production has been slower than anticipated since the car’s 2022 debut. The company has only delivered 50, and is currently finishing one per week.

So Rimac is a new automaker, working out the wrinkles. It’s been busy trying to figure things out and speed up production, right? Not so fast. Mate Rimac has been very busy. But not with Rimac cars.

Ever heard of the Pininfarina Battista? It’s an electric hypercar, built on a Rimac chassis in Munich, Germany with a nebulous association to the famed Pininfarina design house. Its current production is one car per week. That’s right, Rimac is selling as many rolling chassis for Pininfarina to finish as it is keeping for its own Neveras.

Being a component supplier is not Mate Rimac’s only project outside Rimac Automobili. When he unveiled the recent Bugatti Tourbillon he admitted designing that car has been his “main focus” for years. Since completing the Nevera, to be precise. Note that the Tourbillon will have a “highly limited” production run of 250 units.

I’ve previously written that Mate Rimac proved himself a worthy successor to Ettore Bugatti with the Tourbillon. Few humans on the planet have started a supercar company and can claim a vision on par with Ettore Bugatti. If Mate Rimac wants to be a component supplier to various companies building electric hypercars, that’s a great business niche. If he wants to engineer hybrid hypercars for Bugatti and other automakers, go ahead. Consulting on engineering has been a lucrative branch of Porsche for decades. But when you hear “Rimac Group” know it is much more than just a car company.