Move over Ferrari, move over Lamborghini - the most powerful Italian supercar will be an EV called Battista

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Italian design house Pininfarina and Indian manufacturer Mahindra have teamed up to form a new company to make high-end electric vehicles.

Automobili Pininfarina has revealed more details about its first-ever all-electric hypercar, a car that the company claims will pack enough power to make it potentially faster than anything else that has ever come out of Italy, including a Formula 1 car.

Previously known by its development code name of PF0, the car will officially be called the Battista in honour of Battista 'Pinin' Farina, the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company that he started in 1930 and has gone on to design some of the most iconic cars of all time, including legendary Ferraris such as the Daytona, Testarossa and F40.

The first product of Pininfarina's own car brand, started in partnership with its parent company, India's Mahindra Group, the all-electric Battista hypercar will be designed and hand-built in very limited numbers at Pininfarina SpA under the watchful eye of Paulo Pininfarina, Battista's grandson and current Pininfarina SpA Chairman.

Pininfarina says it will reveal the Battista early next year.

'This is genuinely a dream come true,' said Pininfarina.

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'My grandfather always had the vision that one day there would be a stand-alone range of Pininfarina-branded cars. This hypercar will boast world-beating performance, technological innovation and of course elegant styling. For me, we simply had to call it Battista. His dream becomes reality today as we link our glorious past with the future of motoring.'

The company says that 'extreme levels of technology and functional design' lie beneath the Battista's carbon fibre exterior and that its performance will be 'staggering'.

Promising more than 1,400kW of power and 2,300Nm of torque, the Battista has the potential to accelerate to 100km/h in less than two seconds - faster than a Formula 1 car - and hit a top speed of more than 350km/h, all with a potential zero emission range of close to 500km.

No more than 150 Battistas will be available from late 2020 at a price estimated between US$2 million and US$2.5 million (NZ$2.9 million to NZ$3.6 million), with 50 cars currently allocated to the USA, 50 to Europe and 50 to the Middle East and Asia region.