Rimac Nevera sets new Guinness record; clocks 171 mph in reverse!

The Rimac Nevera is making headlines once again. This time, the electric hypercar from Croatia has set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest speed in reverse.

The Nevera achieved a top speed of 171.34 mph in reverse at the Automotive Testing Papenburg facility in Germany. The attempt was witnessed by Guinness World Records and verified using data measured by Dewesoft.

Unlike an internal combustion engine car, or even some electric cars, the drivetrain of the Nevera has no gears – the four individual motors either go backwards or forwards. That means that the same powertrain capable of delivering 0-100 mph in 3.21 seconds or 0-200 mph in just under 11 seconds in both directions.

Matija Renic, Nevera Chief Program Engineer, Bugatti Rimac, said, “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.”

Earlier, the Nevera set the fastest lap time for a production EV at the Nurburgring. It is also the fastest production car to go from 0 to 249 mph and back to 0.