Pininfarina’s 1397kW electric hypercar will appear at the Concours d’Elegance in a production-ready specification for the first time.
The production-ready Pininfarina Battista will finally make its debut at this year’s Monterey Car Week, as the company’s engineers celebrate the end of the car’s lengthy development programme – until now, all of the cars we’ve seen have been prototypes.
Production of the 1397kW Pininfarina Battista electric hypercar will be limited to just 150 examples, split evenly between Europe, the United States and the Middle East. A few will come to Australia. Each car will be priced from $2.2 million (around AUD$2.9 million).
You can read our first drive review of the Pininfarina Battista here, too.
The finished Battista heading to the Monterey exhibition features exposed carbon fibre bodywork and gloss black alloy wheels, although the finer details of its exterior finish are still being kept a secret. Inside, there’s black sustainable leather upholstery and blue Alcantara sport seats.
Pininfarina has far more to offer on the customisation front, though, claiming up to 128 million combinations of exterior and interior options are possible. As such, the brand claims that no two cars will be alike.
Show-goers will also see the Battista Anniversario, which is a tribute to the life and work of the automotive design icon Battista “Pinin” Farina. He’s the grandfather of Pininfarina’s current chairman, Paulo, and gave his name to the company’s electric hypercar project.
Farina penned cars such as the 1955 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, the 1958 Austin A40, the 1966 Fiat 124 Spider and the utterly gorgeous Ferrari 250 GT SWB.
The special edition Battista Anniversario gets an intricate paint finish and a bespoke interior and Pininfarina’s Furiosa package, which adds a more aggressive front splitter and a larger rear wing for greater downforce. Production will be limited to just five examples globally.
Powertrain and platform
The Battista is powered by four electric motors – one for each – wheel, which produce a combined output of 1397kW and 2300Nm of torque. The Italian brand says the system will provide a 0–100kph time of less than two seconds, a 0–300kph time of 12 seconds and a top speed of 350kph.
Performance figures like that make the Battista among the most powerful road cars ever produced, with almost 300kW more than the Bugatti Chiron. The only car the Battista trails is the Lotus Evija, which has an extra 75kW over Pininfarina’s effort.
The Battista’s electric motors are powered by a 120kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery, which is mounted low in the car’s chassis and laid out in a T-shape configuration to aid the car’s weight distribution.
The powertrain has been developed in tandem with Rimac and Pininfarina says the system will deliver a maximum range of more than 500km. Pininfarina also offers up to a 10 year warranty on the battery pack.
The Battista is designed around a carbon fibre monocoque with a carbon fibre and aluminium rear subframe. The car also features a set of carbon-ceramic brakes with six-pot calipers, a torque vectoring system, adjustable dampers, an active rear wing and a range of passive aerodynamic vanes.
The story of the Battista
In 2015, Pininfarina was acquired by Indian firm Mahindra & Mahindra. Shortly after the acquisition, Pininfarina announced it would start producing its own vehicles as Automobili Pininfarina (alongside its existing consultancy business), borrowing the all-electric expertise gained by Mahindra’s participation in the inaugural 2014–15 Formula E season.
The Battista’s design was carried out under the direction of Automobili Pininfarina’s recently-appointed design director, Luca Borgogno, who moved across from the firm’s existing consultancy division.
Towards the end of 2018, Pininfarina named its new hypercar, dedicating it to the company’s founder, Battista Farina. When the announcement was made, the company’s chairman Paolo Pininfarina, grandson to Battista Farina, said: “This is genuinely a dream come true. My grandfather always had the vision that one day there would be a stand-alone range of Pininfarina-branded cars. For me, we simply had to call it Battista.”
Pininfarina has also entered a partnership with global EV charging network ChargePoint to provide buyers of the upcoming Battista electric hypercar with five years of unlimited complimentary public charging at more 115,000 locations across Europe and North America.
Buyers will also get a bespoke domestic wallbox charger, designed by Pininfarina and made from recycled materials, which promises to supply up to 7.2kW of power – enough to fully recharge the hypercar’s 120kWh battery pack in around six hours.
Luke Wilkinson