Tesla vs. Rimac — Elon Musk vs Mate Rimac (European Musk)
This week a photo circulating the internet caught my eye — a photo of two men side-by-side at their first meeting together. I am of course talking about Elon Musk and Mate Rimac. These men are compared so much that the nickname of one leader is a riff of the other. For some people, Mate Rimac is known as the “European Elon Musk”. The owner of the Croatian Start-Up, Rimac Automobile, recently became the owner of a 55% stake in the famous Bugatti, along with Porsche, which owns the other 45% of the stake.
Both men are leaders in developing new technologies to turbo boost the growth of the electric car market. Both companies have become industry leaders from startup origins. Whilst the conditions for start-up in the USA and the Balkans are very different. That is more or less all that differentiates them on the surface. However, Osterus data shows the development path of their companies differ significantly.
Different Paths To Leadership
Tesla is a giant in Electric Vehicle (EV) sales with a global EV market share of 13.84%, 936,172 EVs sold in 2021 and a current market cap of over $ 952 Billion. The company shows the public that electric cars are a sustainable alternative to petrol or diesel cars. The founder is also a pioneer in space travel and futuristic city infrastructure.
On the other hand, Rimac is taking a different path, focusing primarily on technology development and the production of components for high-performance electric vehicles. The company is developing hypercars, the latest one, the Nevera, is the fastest accelerating production car in the world. Although Rimac produces and sells his own hypercars, which cost up to $2 million, there are only a finite number produced and sold.
I used Osterus software to look deeper and see what human capital these two companies have and therefore understand what their perspective is. Human capital is the most valuable form of capital for these two companies as the base of their business is innovation.
What’s “under the hood”?
The Osterus app gave us a clear overview of the main “drivers” of Rimac and Tesla. Both companies rely on highly educated staff. Rimac employs 99.5% of people with at least a bachelor’s degree (42% Bachelor’s degree, 55.4% Master’s Degree, and 2.1% Doctoral Degree). In comparison, Tesla has 93.5% of people with at least a bachelor’s degree (58, 1% Bachelor Degree, 32.1% Master’s Degree, and 3.3% Doctoral Degree).
Rimac
Tesla
It is also clear that, on average, Tesla has more experienced staff recruited mainly from other high-tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and leading companies in the automotive industry such as General Motors, BMW Group, and others. Rimac, on the other hand, relies on workers from its Group (Rimac Technology, Bugatti Rimac) and different technology and automotive companies such as Ericsson, Jaguar Land Rover orHrvatski Telekom.
Tesla
Rimac
Product Development vs. Customer Care
Engineering dominates the employees at Rimac with 31.8% of all workers in that segment, IT professionals follow with 14.4%, and project managers come third with 10.8%. This clearly indicates that the focus of this company is on product development and the creation of new technologies. Its growth model is based primarily on providing new technologies that enable the general growth of the electric car market. This is also shown by the percentage of employees in customer service (6.5%). This is not an insignificant amount but pales in comparison to Tesla.
Rimac
Tesla is significantly different. The company already occupies a large part of the electric car market, so it logically follows that their focus must be different. With so many customers, Tesla has focused on their satisfaction. Their workforce is dominated by customer service which makes up 21.2% of the workforce, while engineering has a 18.2% stake and IT has 11.6%. These figures, especially when you look at the previous positions held, indicate Tesla has followed the same path since its inception. They are set up to push the boundaries in the automotive industry and increase the adoption of new car technologies by the general public.
Tesla
Gender and language diversity
The participation of women in these industries is still insufficient. This is a general fact for the automotive industry, and even for the IT industry. Sadly it is evident in the gender split between these two companies as well.
Rimac has a gender split of 24.2%, compared to 71.8% (women and men respectively), while 4% are undetected. These figures are slightly different for Tesla: 23.3% of the workforce are women versus 73.7% who are men, while 3% are undetected.
Rimac
Tesla
On the other hand, when we talk about language diversity, the statistics are much more favorable. Like most high-tech companies, Rimac and Tesla employ experts regardless of their background, so we can see that the employees of these companies speak many languages:
Rimac
Tesla
Similarities That Differ
Many compare Mate Rimac with Elon Musk and on the face of it Rimac and Tesla do seem similar, however the differences in their business set up are still significant. Tesla will continue its business model of mass production and distribution of affordable electric cars worldwide. That is the way to maintain its market position and bring the transition to EV to as many users as possible. Therefore they’re focusing on their customer satisfaction and implementing new technologies in the automotive industry.
By taking over Bugatti from Volkswagen, Rimac has shown willingness to strengthen its leading position in the field of luxury, high-performance electric hypercars. They’ve already pushed the boundaries with their Rimac Nevera model! in an industry that is growing at an ever-increasing rate, it is crucial to maintain flexibility, innovation, and sustainability. The Croatian brand has already proven itself by setting performance and technological benchmarks for others, which allows them to play a significant role in supplying other world manufacturers of electric cars and their production.
Why Is It Essential to Have the Right Data at the Right time?
Nowadays, instinct is not enough for business success. It is necessary as a component of success, but not enough. In a dynamic business environment, data and information give you an accurate understanding of where you stand vs the competition. Tesla and Rimac definitely did not base their success only on instinct.
Our software offers detailed insights into education and work experience of each department (IT, Software-development, Engineering, Marketing, Sales etc.)
To be sure you have relevant data for the right business decisions, check out the Osterus app. Feel free to schedule a demo and see how the data can help you.
