The Geneva-bound hypercar that Automobili Pininfarina had been calling the PFO for the last several months will now officially get its own moniker: Battista, after Carrozzeria Pininfarina founder Battista “Pinin” Farina. It’s not exactly Enzo or Senna, but there is at least reason in its naming. It’s just unfortunate that the founder of the world-famous design firm wasn’t named “Flash.”
Wait, you say, there’s a new car company named Automobili Pininfarina? Yes, there is. Some background:
Both the famous design and small-volume manufacturing firm Pininfarina SpA in Italy and the newly formed, seemingly independent automaker Automobili Pininfarina in Munich are 100 percent owned by Indian car- and truckmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Automobilia Pininfarina is planning to produce a line of ultra-high-performance, clean transportation. The company was launched earlier this year to “bring to market unique, beautiful and technically advanced sustainable luxury electric cars.”
If the design sketches we’ve seen so far are any indication, the first car is going to be a doozy. From the shadowy drawings you see above, it looks like it’ll resemble nothing less than a modern take on the Ferrari P4, one of the most beautiful cars ever made, and one which was also designed by Pininfarina, albeit over 50 years ago.
The new Battista promises a bit more performance, if we are to believe the claims: 0-60 in under two seconds, 0-186 mph in under 12 seconds, top speed of over 250 mph and a range of over 300 miles.
By now you’re saying, “Hey man, that’s just vaporware.”
Well, let’s see. Automobili Pininfarina recently announced a “multi-million-euro commercial partnership” with Croatian electric supercar maker Rimic Automobili to supply it with EV powertrain and battery technology. Coincidentally, Rimac makes a car called the C_Two that has almost the same performance specs as the coming Battista: 0-60 in 1.85 seconds, 1,914 hp, 258-mph top speed and just under 1,700 lb-ft of torque. The C_Two is an all-carbon fiber monocoque with active aerodynamics. It is powered by a 125-kWh pack of lithium-manganese-nickel batteries powering four electric motors — one for each wheel. Torque is distributed via R_AWTV, or Rimac all-wheel torque vectoring, a system Rimac says “replaces traditional ESP and TCS and enables infinitely variable dynamic responses by finessing the amount of torque to each wheel.”
So will the Battista be just a Rimac C_Two with a svelte new Pininfarina body? Maybe. We don’t know yet. We will find out in March at the Geneva motor show. That’s where the Battista will officially debut. But start saving now to meet the $2 million to $2.5 million purchase price. And be patient, as deliveries aren’t scheduled to begin before late-2020.
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