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Pininfarina Battista: The Luxury Problem

2021-12-01T03:11:54.210Z


Four engines instead of twelve cylinders: the age of electric cars is producing completely different super sports cars. Pininfarina sets records with the Battista - and yet our test driver felt a little sad.


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The first impression:

Futuristic standards, classic optics - after all, the laws of aerodynamics apply regardless of the type of drive.

What the manufacturer says:

The Swedish boss Per Svantesson praises the Battista as the fastest and most powerful road car that has been built in Italy to date.

In fact, the performance of 1900 hp is a record.

And even if the speed specification "over 350 km / h" is perhaps exceeded by a Ferrari - the 1.9 seconds from 0 to 100 km / h should be difficult to crack.

The Pininfarina Battista is intended to appeal to the supercar clientele and collectors who hope for an increase in value with exclusive small series.

A maximum of 150 Battista copies are to be built, and each of them will cost at least 2.3 million euros.

Even if nobody knows whether an electric car will one day drive and function as a classic car, the name should allow a certain return.

Svantesson also sees startup or Internet billionaires from Silicon Valley or China as a customer group.

They just want to afford the luxury of frenzy without climate-damaging side effects.

Svantesson will need such new customers.

Because anyone who appreciates super sports cars because of their sensuality will probably not be happy with the stun gun.

We noticed that

if it weren't for the digital display landscape behind the steering wheel, the Battista would also pass as a super sports car from Ferrari or Lamborghini - with all the paint, leather, fine stitching and carbon.

The driver only becomes suspicious when he presses the start button.

Otherwise an eight-, ten- or twelve-cylinder engine will roar at this moment.

Here happens - just nothing.

Not even the hum of a fan can be heard.

The harder the hammer hits you on the kick-down.

As if out of nowhere, it tears the car forward.

The maximum torque is 2300 Nm.

But as intense as the driver feels the acceleration, there is something hypothermic about it.

It feels like a Playstation, at least after a professional simulation.

Even the fastest e-athlete speaks less to the senses than an internal combustion engine.

It may sound transfigured, but without mechanics something is missing.

No sound, no vibrations, no gear changes and therefore no jolt.

With the Pininfarina Battista one races like in a clean room, somehow sterile.

This is a fundamental (luxury) problem with electric propulsion.

On the other hand, the controls sometimes seem artificial.

Pininfarina has banned all counters.

That looks cool - but annoying at the latest when the driver has to adjust the mirrors and seats via touchscreen.

Even the tailgate can only be opened by tapping through the menu.

And yet the Battista is fascinating. You would want a few of its peculiarities for every super sports car. There is the excess of power that makes you forget the 2.2 tons of vehicle weight. Four individually controllable motors enable electronic controls that Ferrari or Lamborghini drivers dream of. Professionals move the Battista in a drift and take the serpentines of the test route with a dreamlike safety. Laypeople get along with the monster like a mini. A lot of things are regulated by a wheel to the left of the knee, on which the driving modes are set. "Calma" on the one hand, "Furiosa" on the other - you don't have to know Italian to know what's going on.

You have to know that:

The four electric motors make the Pininfarina Battista the top trump in the car quartet. Two with 250 kW each in the bow, two more with 450 kW each in the stern. The battery is also powerful with 120 kWh of storage capacity. On a racing circuit, the battery should provide at least one hour of energy, in everyday life, according to the norm, for more than 500 kilometers. The Battista is also quickly at the charging station: In theory, it can be charged with 250 kW and is 80 percent full again after 25 minutes.

The Italian high-flyer is not that unique.

He competes as a clone of the Rimac Nevera, from which he takes over the batteries, drive and carbon chassis.

All of this comes in a package from Croatia to Turin, where Pininfarina installs its own chassis in the main plant in Cambiano, uploads its own software and slips its own body over the carbon fiber cell.

At some point the Italians, who are now part of the Mahindra Group, apparently ran out of money for their own developments.

Now they have room for investments that are more sustainable.

The Battista is ahead of a fleet of luxurious, but significantly cheaper electric vehicles, which will be launched on the market in at least four-digit numbers and various body styles before 2025, says CEO Svantesson.

We won't forget that

: the disappointment in a lonely tunnel.

Where petrolheads like to roll up slowly, open the windows, shift down a gear and then accelerate all the more violently - to enjoy fireworks with many thousands of small explosions.

With the Battista only the gravel rattles.

All the greater the joy a few kilometers later, when the road winds its way through quiet autumn forests towards a glacier.

Hikers, not disturbed by any noise, pay tribute to the driver.

There is also a »que bella macchina«.

It goes down, almost like oil.

Thomas Geiger is a freelance writer and was supported in his research by Pininfarina.

Reporting is independent of this.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-12-01

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