With first deliveries due in late 2020, just a few months before the ULEZ extends to the whole of Greater London in 2021, the Battista’s electric powertrain provides extraordinary performance within a dramatic body style that is pure hypercar and becomes a true poster car for the EV generation. Pininfarina personifies automotive styling from its studios in Italy; a company renowned for its links to Ferrari but now presenting its own creation.
However, with single-charge range targeting 300-miles, for a non-stop drive from London to Paris, and a sprint from 0-60mph in less than two seconds (faster than an F1 car), the Battista represents a new reality for electric cars, before ultra-low emissions moves to zero emissions regulation. It can be described fairly as a car for today.
Michael Perschke, CEO, Automobili Pininfarina, told us: “The Battista is a truly beautiful, guilt-free hypercar; the first EV to really fall in love with, because electricity enables us to develop it with zero emissions and as the most powerful car that will have ever been designed and built in Italy. As London joins many cities in moving towards a more sustainable future, we hope that Battista also inspires a generation to consider electric cars, not just through the benefits of zero emissions, but also through the beauty and the performance that electrification offers.”
As EV demand increases exponentially, the Battista redefines electric car beauty and performance. Last year witnessed new levels of popularity for the electric car buyer. EVs were the fourth most searched for segment among car buyers in the UK. The USA’s best-selling luxury car in 2018 was an EV and, in Norway, a nation built on oil revenues, its best-selling car in 2018 was also electric.
Just twelve months since the Automobili Pininfarina luxury EV car business was first introduced, the Battista’s place as the most powerful, luxurious and beautiful electric car available to order highlights the technologies and desirability that electrification offers car buyers and the traditional car industry. In equal measure, its combination of performance and Pininfarina-designed carbon fibre body appeals to traditional supercar collectors and automotive connoisseurs. It is pure supercar in its style, with a charging e-port that glows and pulses according to its state of charge but also revealing its electric-car credentials.
Luxury cars have provided the foundation historically to innovate the mass market. While its limited run of just 150 examples will ensure that Battista remains rare and collectable, it is anticipated that its pioneering position for zero-emissions desirability will accelerate demand and desire for EVs, if not quite as rapid as the acceleration of Battista itself. The car is also being driven at the exclusive Goodwood Members’ Meeting, while on its brief trip to the UK.
