Automobili Pininfarina have announced that their electric hypercar codenamed PF0 will be named Battista, after Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina, the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company started in 1930.
Unlike the name many of us are familiar with, this superstar isn’t from Washington DC and doesn’t weigh 290 pounds. The Pininfarina Battista will be the first model from the newly-created brand to spearhead their entry into the automotive market. The luxury electric vehicle will be formally unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show in March. The name came naturally as it was Pininfarina’s founder’s vision to see a car badged with the company’s own logo. It will, from what we know so far, Italy’s fastest road-legal car with an output of 1,900 PS and 2,300 Nm from the all-electric driveline. It will also be capable of accelerating from 0-100 km/h in less than two seconds and better 250 mph (402 km/h), with zero emissions and a range of over 300 miles (480 km). The car will be hand-built in extremely limited numbers at Pininfarina SpA in Italy.
(L-R) Silvio Pietro Angori, Paolo Pininfarina, Michael Perschke
Battista’s grandson and current Chairman of Pininfarina SpA Paolo Pininfarina shook hands with Michael Perschke, CEO, Automobili Pininfarina and Anand Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra Group Chairman confirming that the limited-edition hypercar would take his grandfather’s name and also be the fastest and most powerful car ever designed and produced in Italy.
He 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. This hypercar will boast world-beating performance, technological innovation and of course elegant styling. For me, we simply had to call it Battista. His dream becomes reality today as we link our glorious past with the future of motoring.”
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Automobili Pininfarina have made a series of announcements in recent weeks that underpin their ambitions to be the world’s most innovative, sustainable and desirable, wholly-electric luxury performance car brand at launch in 2020. These include a € 20 million (Rs 160 crore approx) investment in a new partnership with Pininfarina SpA that underpins design, development and production of the Battista and the future range of Automobili Pininfarina cars at Pininfarina SpA headquarters in Cambiano near Turin, a multi-million-euro commercial partnership with Rimac Automobili, the world’s leading electric powertrain and battery supplier to premium and luxury automotive brands, as well as new leadership appointments across the business of automotive executives with significant experience in design, development, engineering and connectivity from brands such as Pagani, Bugatti, Porsche, McLaren and Volvo.
A total of no more than 150 Battistas will be available from late 2020 at a price estimated between US$ 2 million and US$ 2.5 million (Rs 14 crore and Rs 17.5 crore). Of these, 50 cars are currently allocated to the USA, 50 to Europe, and 50 to the Middle East and Asia regions.
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