Rimac builds BMW batteries every 52 seconds

At Rimac Technology's campus outside Zagreb, a production line stamps out a new battery module every 52 seconds. The company reported EUR 245 million in revenue last year and expects roughly 40% growth in 2026 (tportal). Those modules feed into complete high-voltage battery systems for BMW's electric i7 sedan, assembled by a company that barely existed as a manufacturer five years ago (24sata). For Europe's battery ambitions, the launch is a concrete win and a reality check at once.

What the factory floor shows

A high-voltage battery system is more than a box of cells. It is the vehicle-ready package: cell modules, cooling hardware, safety circuits, and the battery-management electronics that control how an electric car stores and releases energy (BatteryDesign). Rimac puts 15,000 square metres of its campus to work on the BMW i7 programme, running two lines that can turn out up to 300,000 modules and 48,000 complete systems a year (tportal, Index.hr).

Rimac is hiring 150 staff for the programme by year-end (24sata). These are technically demanding engineering jobs in a country better known for tourism than automotive manufacturing.

A partial win in the battery sovereignty race

For BMW, Rimac solves a specific problem. The German carmaker is rolling out its newest electric platform while profits face pressure from a weak Chinese market and rising costs (Tagesschau). BMW wants to control battery design and software while relying on specialist partners for physical production. A European system supplier shortens supply lines and reduces geopolitical risk.

The timing fits a broader Brussels push. On 9 June, the European Commission launched the Battery Booster Facility, offering up to EUR 1.5 billion in interest-free loans to help battery manufacturers scale up inside Europe (European Commission). The money comes from the EU's emissions trading system, which charges companies for their carbon dioxide output.

Major carmakers are meanwhile lobbying for "Made in Europe" rules. Since a battery can represent roughly half an EV's total value, local-content requirements are really battery requirements (Cinco Días). Rimac-BMW gives policymakers a working example of the kind of cross-border manufacturing they want to encourage.

The story stops well short of full battery independence, though. BMW's newest cells come from CATL and EVE Energy, both Chinese manufacturers (Industriemagazin, newmobility.news). Germany imported batteries worth roughly EUR 22 billion in 2025, about half from China, with industry body ZVEI warning of growing dependence (n-tv). Europe is learning to bundle cells into working car batteries. Whether it can manufacture those cells competitively is the harder question.

The price of local supply

Croatia gains most directly: engineering jobs, industrial credibility, and a position on Europe's EV map that did not exist a decade ago. BMW gets a European partner that reduces supply-chain exposure. EU policymakers get evidence that industrial policy can produce real factories, not just announcements.

The costs spread wider. Across the EU, taxpayers are underwriting the battery transition through public loans and state aid, from the Commission's Battery Booster to Slovakia's EUR 1 billion clean-tech scheme backing battery and EV investments (Aktuality.sk). For consumers, the shift comes with a trade-off. European production may strengthen long-term supply security, but local-content rules could raise short-term EV prices if they kick in before manufacturing catches up (Il Foglio).

The data that would settle the sovereignty question is still missing. Nobody has published what share of Rimac's systems, by value, originates within the EU. The reported production volumes come from company statements, not confirmed by the carmaker. And cost competitiveness against Chinese alternatives remains unmeasured in public data. Europe's EV supply chain is working at the integration layer, the engineering that bundles cells into vehicle-ready systems. Whether cells, materials, and costs can follow is what separates an industrial foothold from genuine autonomy.