Croatia-based autonomous mobility company Verne said on Tuesday the construction of its first production facility for autonomous electric vehicles (EV) has started near the capital Zagreb in cooperation with VGP, a pan-European provider of logistics and semi-industrial real estate.
The completion of construction works is planned for the end of this year, as the plant is scheduled to start operating in 2026, Verne said in a press release.
The facility will cover 28,500 square metres. It is part of a new business park, VGP Park Zagreb, which VGP is developing on 10 hectares. VGP Park Zagreb is VGP’s first investment in Croatia. The plant will be built according to Verne’s requirements and specifications, as the building will be owned by VGP.
"The construction of the Verne large-scale production factory is a strategically important step for our company and a significant contribution to the development of a future-oriented automotive industry in Croatia," Marko Pejkovic, CEO and co-founder of Verne, said, adding that the vehicles will be sold globally.
"It’s important to mention that the construction of the Verne factory, its maintenance costs, along with additional resources Verne will invest in equipment are entirely funded through private investments and are not connected to EU funding," Pejkovic added.
Initially, Verne will manufacture several hundred vehicles. The production volume will increase over time. Upon completion, the factory is expected to create up to 400 jobs.
Verne, which has secured investments including from TASARU Mobility Investments - a company fully owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - and South Korean automotive manufacturer Kia, was founded in 2019 by Mate Rimac of the Rimac technology group, Pejkovic and Adriano Mudri as Project 3 Mobility.
The company has received a 179.5 million euro ($185 million) grant from the European Commission to develop its robo-taxi project.
VGP was founded in 1998 as a family-owned Belgian property developer in the Czech Republic and today operates with 368 employees in 17 European countries directly and through several joint ventures. In December 2023, the company had a net asset value of 2.3 billion euro. VGP is listed on Euronext Brussels.
(SeeNews, February 11, 2025)
