Rimac’s Concept Two is a soulless speed demon you unlock with your face

I came, I saw, and I took pictures of the Rimac Concept Two at the Geneva Motor Show, but I was left somehow unimpressed by this grandiose new hypercar. Unlike Lamborghini’s latest Huracán, which plucks heartstrings at first sight, the all-electric Rimac feels anonymous and unexciting. Every undulating curve, every design flourish feels like something I’ve already seen — the C Two’s headlights remind of the Ferrari Superfast and Koenigsegg Regera, while the tail lights seem inspired by the BMW i8. The Rimac goes crazy fast, and I’m sure much of its design is motivated by the exigencies of aerodynamics, but it lacks the visual appeal of the world’s most evocative supercars.

It just feels like supercar fan fiction.

Looking at the Rimac Concept Two’s claimed performance numbers makes any aesthetic qualms evaporate. This car comes with jaw-dropping claims of 1,914 horsepower, a 1.85-second 0-60 mph time, and a max speed of 258 mph. The promised 400-mile range on a single charge is also hugely impressive.

But, being at the Geneva Motor Show and seeing it in a dormant position, all I can do is opine on the way it’s been styled and designed. Rimac says that the C Two’s butterfly doors allow for “sophisticated entry and egress.” That’s a fancy way of saying you can get in and out of the car without the exceedingly awkward, butt-first technique required by Ferrari and McLaren’s fastest cars. I did find this car more forgiving and accommodating than most others in the hypercar class, and the leather interior complements that nicely with a soft and supple feel.

The incongruous tablet that’s perched in the middle of the C Two’s cabin is rather a distraction, and so is the choice of an all-caps user interface that seems to yell at the driver rather than assist them. There’s also a thin digital readout in front of the passenger seat, which Rimac describes as part of “a semi-gaming experience.” That’s reaching for a justification to just put more readouts in front of people, and there’s not really anything unpredictable or exceptional about this Rimac concept’s interior. It has all the usual controls you’d expect, arranged in a mostly typical way. (On a related note, when will car companies wise up to the fact that text is easier to read when it’s not all capitalized?)

Rimac has a couple of smart touches on the exterior of the Concept Two. The wheels have an aerodynamic design that “channels cooling air to the carbon-ceramic braking system and ensures smooth airflow down the flanks of the car.” The tires are a custom compound, developed with the help of Pirelli. The headlights are composed of 58 LEDs each, and come with custom-cooled control units, while the tail lights also include integrated air outlet channels.

Those big incisions into the hood aren’t just for looks — they’re active flaps that modify the car’s aerodynamic profile. The rear wing also moves to provide extra downforce or serve as an air brake when required. And the stuff we don’t see, the underside of the car, has also been designed to optimize airflow, with active flaps channeling cool air toward the battery pack cooling systems.

There’s no mistaking the high sophistication of engineering, aerodynamics, and materials science that has gone into crafting the Rimac C Two. Techies will also find such niceties as Level 4 autonomy for when they don’t feel like driving, facial recognition replacing the need for a key (to both unlock and start the car), voice control, ADAS, and preloaded racetrack maps and guides for the aspiring track hero.

We’ve been comparing a lot of the new electric cars here in Geneva to Tesla’s EV range, which casts a menacing shadow across the show floor the same way that the iPhone menaces the Mobile World Congress exhibition. But a comparison against the Rimac C Two would be unfair even to Tesla’s next-gen Roadster. The Concept Two is (a) not a production-class vehicle, and (b) competing in a much higher price bracket. Both of those factors are also why I find myself underwhelmed by the look of this car: it’s a concept for something that’s liable to cost seven figures, is it too much to ask for it to have a more flamboyant and unique design?