July 2 (SeeNews) - Hyundai Motor Group said it will step up its strategic partnership with Croatia's Rimac Automobili and will support Rimac's aspirations to turn Croatia into an automotive industry centre.
“We will further bolster our strategic partnership in developing high-performance electric vehicle and fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) prototypes across the Hyundai Motor Group brands," the group's executive vice president and head of product division, Thomas Schemera, said in a press release on Monday.
"We are encouraged by the Croatian government's support for our partnership with Rimac,” Schemera added.
The press release was issued after Schemera joined the Rimac founder and CEO, Mate Rimac, and Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic in their discussion on the potential of the new auto industry in Croatia on Friday in Zagreb.
In May, Hyundai Motor signed an 80 million euro ($90 million) strategic partnership agreement with Rimac Automobili, planning to collaborate on the development of two high-performance electric vehicles (EVs) by 2020.
Hyundai holds an 11% stake in Rimac Automobili - the company, which was founded in 2009 when Mate Rimac began working from his garage on his vision of producing electric sports cars.
Mate Rimac now has a 47.7% stake in the company, followed by China's Camel Group with 14%, Porsche with 10%, Kia with 2.7%, while the remainder is distributed among smaller shareholders.
Following the meeting with Plenkovic, Mate Rimac said that Croatia needs to develop comparative advantages over other countries, if it wants to attract global automotive manufacturers and suppliers.
“Rimac wants to contribute to attracting investors to Croatia, and our role is to point to the needs and expectations of the auto industry,” Mate Rimac was quoted as saying in the press release.
($ = 0.885252 euro)