Pininfarina Batista Hyper Electric Car

This is the Pininfarina Batista, a hypercar that had a good long studious look at the hypercar manual and then torn it into pieces with its teeth. To say this thing is slightly deranged might be a little bit of an understatement. What we are looking at here what Pininfarina calls the world’s first pure electric luxury hyper GT. It goes up against the forthcoming Rimac concept 2, Tesla Roadster hybrid, McLaren Speedtail. If we are talking about power, I don’t know — God?

I think I’ll get straight to the numbers because everything else kinda pales into insignificance. It has a power of 1900 horses, a torque of 2300 Nm, and if we talk about emissions — none. It’s difficult to wrap your head around those kinds of numbers. But I’ll put it another way. This is a road car with almost twice the power of a formula 1 racing car, more than three times the torque of a McLaren F1 and it shares the same environmental footprint as a Nissan Leaf.

Now Pininfarina is saying acceleration is going to be savage. 0 to 60 miles per hour(mph) in under 2 seconds. That’s the F1 level of acceleration. 0–186 mph will take 12 seconds. It’s quicker than McLaren Speedtail.
It has a maximum velocity just north of 217 mph. You just don’t see those kinds of numbers on a normal road car, and there’s a reason for that. It’s just not possible to see in a car that uses an internal combustion engine. Pininfarina says if you want this kind of acceleration, you have to go electric. Under the skin, they’ve used a big T-shaped LiMnNi battery pack with a 120 kWh capacity supplied by the guys and gals at Rimac.

It’s essentially the same unit you get in a Rimac concept-2, and It’s big enough for a range of 450 km. That battery pack feeds electrons to 4 separate electric motors, one for each wheel. Extreme performance in a heartbeat. As you’d expect this allows for torque similar to a McLaren Formula 1 car. The car can intelligently send more or less power to each wheel independently. 0 to 300 km/h in 12 seconds. Hypothetically you can switch between rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive to match your mood and taste.

Those motors deliver instant torque. So much torque and so instantly that most of these cars' driving modes actually limit the amount of torque you have available, in order to give the driver a little bit of a thinking space before the car launches you into the next postcode. As for noise, they are promising it won’t be completely silent. Pininfarina says you’ll not only hear the motors but they are also working on an artificial sound that fits the car’s personality.

E-Tron 2.0 — these motors also provide an element of energy recuperation through braking. But, Pininfarina has gone beyond the traditional brakes. Here they have installed massive 390 mm carbon-ceramic discs attached to six-pot calipers. So the Batista should stop just as violently as it accelerates. I wanted to get the numbers out of the way first because they are so ludicrous.
But the design is of paramount importance. Design is what Pininfarina is most famous for. the company made its name inspiring some of the most iconic cars on the planet. Not to mention few not-so iconic ones.

If you remember the Hyundai Matrix, you know what I’m talking about. Pininfarina has kept the finest piece of design for themselves though. This thing is genuinely stunning. A lot is going on here. I can almost see a little bit of Ferrari influence towards the front, maybe a touch of McLaren 720 s in this teardrop-shaped roof section and I can almost see a BMW-i 8 here, going on towards the rear. The body is made entirely out of carbon fiber on top of which we have this sweeping teardrop-shaped glass canopy. At the front, you’ll see a single dynamic LED light strip between the headlights used as a DRL and as an indicator. Below which you find a smattering of passive aerodynamic extras.

At the side, the design is gone for quite a sensual but well-sculpted look. Let’s start with these wing mirrors. Now, these are actually functional aero devices. They funnel air along the side of the car and into the vents feeding radiators. Air also flows over the top of the car and onto these split rear spoiler. Now naturally this is an active unit that provides 3 levels of down-force and also acts as an air-brake.

Now let’s talk doors. this wouldn’t be a pure electric luxury hyper GT if it didn’t have silly doors right? and luckily this has some of the silliest in the business — Butterfly doors. Very cool. And these are hinged on the roof itself to give you even a larger opening to help you get in and out more easily. Speaking of which the whole car is designed around the concept of ‘vanishing point’.

There are 3 primary displays inside. On the left-hand side, we have a screen showing all the driving dynamics and car settings. And on the right-hand side, you have your media and you have your Satellite Navigation and in the sensor all your vital information including your gears, and what speed you are doing. As for the buttons, this is a very minimalist design. There aren’t too many in here but on the left-hand side you do get a drive mode selector which can let you select ‘Pura’, ‘Energica’, and the most violent mode of all ‘Furiosa’. In the center, you have your gear selector switch essentially which puts your drive, neutral, or park.

Pininfarina’s objective with the Batista is to create a blank canvas and work with customers to create something that reflects their individual personalities. You never see two Batistas that look the same but they should all look incredibly cool whether it’s a mat-grey with blue accents of Aluminium detailing or the Pininfarina blue with chrome highlights or the Pura white classic — understated — striking. It’s all very lovely and all very exclusive as you might expect. Only 150 examples will be made which means that when the time cars are released in 2020 many of us might not actually get a chance to see one in the carbon which would be a massive shame because it is just beautiful. Now in terms of pricing, Pininfarina hasn’t yet announced a figure but if you gotta ask you might be better off shopping around for something like a BMW i3. Elon Musk your move buddy!