The world’s fastest road car powered by electricity has been revealed, at the Geneva Motor Show.
The car made by Italian Pininfarina, known as Battista, is powered by electricity and costs #2 million.
Maker Automobili Pininfarina claims Battista does 0-62mph in less than two seconds, 186mph in less than 12 seconds, has a top speed of more than 250mph, and does 280 miles on one charge.
Its brake horse power (bhp) is equivalent to 1,900, about twice that of a Formula 1 car (a decent-sized Ford Fiesta, Britain’s best-selling car, has a bhp of between about 84 and 138).
BBC reports Automobili Pininfarina chief executive Michael Perschke saying the power of the car ‘is crazy’. The car is, he says, a statement that high performance and electric propulsion are not mutually exclusive.
The Battista is not the only hypercar – electric or otherwise – on display at Geneva. And Rimac’s Concept Two car and Tesla’s Roadster have already pushed the boundaries of what is possible with battery technology.
But there’s no doubt that the Battista is one of the most anticipated unveilings at this week’s show, partly because Automobili Pininfarina is little more than a year old.
To have leapfrogged some of the industry’s most famous names in such a short time has attracted a mixture of admiration and curiosity.
That said, it wasn’t a completely clean slate. The carmaker is a spin-off of Pininfarina, the legendary Italian design house that helped take many Ferrari and Alfa Romeo cars from the drawing board to production.
The Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group bought a majority stake in Pininfarina in 2015. Mahindra has an automotive division, owns South Korean car company SsangYong Motor, and runs a team in the Formula E racing series.
So when Mahindra decided to extend the Pininfarina name from car design to car production it brought with it expertise and resources.
Electric vehicles are the future and Mahindra intends to be in the mass market for shared mobility and autonomous vehicles, he said. “But this disruption is not going to affect people’s desire for things of beauty and make the heart beat faster.”
With the Pininfarina pedigree and Italian heritage there are big hopes that the Battista will make electric cars cool, sexy; an electric Ferrari, perhaps.
Paolo Pininfarina, chairman of Pininfarina and grandson of the company’s founder, said designing something beautiful was key – not surprising given the heritage. “We are designers, we are Italian. We could not compromise on the car’s beauty,” he said.
The T-shaped battery along the centre and behind the seats gave the designers far more space to work with than the internal combustion engines they were used to.
The Battista – named after Pininfarina’s founder Battista “Pinin” Farina – won’t be the only electric vehicle produced by Automobili Pininfarina.
The plan is for a range of EVs, including a sports utility vehicle, although the intention is to remain firmly in the luxury bracket.
Pininfarina did once try to produce an electric car, in 2008, a project shelved when the company ran into financial trouble. That car promised 30mph in 5 seconds, top speed 85mph and range of 125 miles.
It’s an illustration of just how far electric technology has moved on. But for Mr Mahindra, we’re still only at the start of what emissions-free technology can achieve
