2019 Geneva Motor Show: Pininfarina Debuts The 1900-hp Battista

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With the arrival of its first ever car, Pininfarina has already secured a spot in the big boys club, pushing all benchmarks in the electric hypercar segment. The Battista, ladies and gentlemen, is now crowned as the most powerful road-legal to come out of Italy.

Thanks to the 120kWh battery, the Battista puts out approximately 1900hp and 2990Nm of torque. Those are some massive numbers indeed. With unique properties such as the e-motion, Battista’s 0-100kph time falls in the F1 territory. We are talking about triple-digit speeds in sub-two seconds and 300kph in less than 12. The beauty of it? All without spending an ounce of hydrocarbon.

Like the models that Pininfarina is credited with, the Battista only speaks the language of speed. It is built on a carbon fibre monocoque chassis with batteries behind the occupants and along the sides in a T format. The electric powertrain is developed alongside Rimac. While there aren’t a lot of rivals, the Battista is reported to be the heaviest of them all. However, Pininfarina insists that the layout delivers the optimum weight distribution with four motors that feed juice to each wheel.

On the inside, the cockpit features a ‘vanishing point’ aspect to the main display along with a futuristically driver-centric layout. Interestingly, rather than opting for leather the company chosen fine and fashionable recyclable materials.

“We wanted to keep the form and proportion of a traditional supercar,” chief designer Luca Borgogno says. “We did a lot of research, thought about how much of a spaceship it could have been, but elected to create something in line with our history, true to Pininfarina’s values. The cabin pushing forward, the long tail balancing the visual weight – it’s still the best configuration you can find. For us, it was clear this was the way to go.

“It takes back some of the beauty of the 1960s, the sensuality. Look at the cars in our museum upstairs: what really strikes you is the purity and beauty.”

The Battista serves to be a standing statement of Pininfarina’s intentions with electric powertrains in the near future.