








Following a small series of successful private presentations of the PF0 – the Battista prototype design model – in North America and Europe in 2018, the wraps come off the production version of the world’s first luxury electric hyper GT in unique fashion in Geneva.
The Pininfarina Battista is the result of a close collaboration between the Automobili Pininfarina design team, led by Luca Borgogno, and Pininfarina SpA, led by its Design Vice President Carlo Bonzanigo. Pininfarina SpA will also hand-build every Battista in Cambiano, Italy.
At the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show, Automobili Pininfarina will present two examples of the ground-breaking hypercar to prospective owners. Potential clients wishing to express interest in owning a Battista can meet the Automobili Pininfarina sales team to discuss their requirements at the new brand’s stand located in Hall 2 of the Palexpo exhibition centre. The Pininfarina SpA stand is in the adjacent Hall 1 and hosts a third Battista design model.
The three Battista specifications being presented at Geneva reflect the potential for personalisation of the 150 cars that will be produced, highlighted by the Iconica by Automobili Pininfarina design pack on a Blu Iconica Battista. There is an ambition and expectation that each car will be unique, which will also underline the elegance and design purity of the car acting as a blank canvas upon which owners can paint their own masterpieces, with advice from the masters-of-design in Cambiano.
The Battista is the flagship for the new Automobili Pininfarina brand and the platform for a level of performance and technology never before experienced. It is the trail blazer of the EV movement and the purest expression of Pininfarina’s philosophy: it resolves the apparent paradox between the functional design of wings, vanes, splitters, inlets and outlets, and beautiful design that is defined by clean, elegant, pure and sensual surfaces. This is typical of the challenge that Pininfarina has mastered over its almost 90-year history – yet this particular journey is truly ground-breaking as it is Pininfarina’s first hypercar fully integrating EV technology.
Battista Exterior Design
The Battista is a typically elegant Pininfarina design. Renowned for being able to define their cars in just two lines, the Battista is no different, presenting a full carbon body that is curvaceous and sculptural, with a cabin encased in sweeping glass. A single dynamic strip of LED light is proudly positioned at the front of the car between the Battista’s headlights.
With just a few lines, the design team has expressed the characteristics of the car. The most important line encircles the car, and it starts at the front, where the design line creates the effect of a floating wing. This runs along the flank to create a sensual and sculpted side profile before climbing over the rear wheel arches and around the rear wing.
Defining the wing in this way connects the rear of the car with the front visually and subtly draws attention to its strong functional purpose of creating significant levels of downforce and acting as an airbrake.
The simple accent line around the car outlines the classic teardrop cabin shape that defines many of the most iconic Pininfarina designs; a particularly difficult challenge for a hypercar. As a result, the roof is a very aerodynamic shape – cab forward with a long, sloping rear end – and makes the cabin almost look like it is floating within the car’s overall body structure.
The roof itself is darker than the body, which keeps attention on the elegant body sides and front and rear design flourishes, and it is partly formed by the tops of butterfly wing style doors that dramatically lift and tilt to ensure easy entry and exit. At its rear lower edge, the charging e-port adds a level of drama and intrigue as it pulsates to indicate the Battista’s charge status.
A simple line of aluminium connects A- and B-pillars, defining the shape of the doors and side windows, and ending just above a carbon fibre bridge that connects the cabin to the rear flank and channels air into the rear cooling zone. These design details are the first steps into personalisation.
Battista Interior Design
To match the exterior seamlessly, the interior design has a strong, elegant ambience with a purity of purpose. The Battista is an ultra-high-performance car operating at a level never before experienced in the automotive world, so the interior is totally focused on the driver interface.
Inside the car, the cockpit must be equally as inspiring as the exterior design in both form and function. Pininfarina SpA is defining what the company calls a ‘vanishing point’ concept for the main dashboard display which will be both unique and exciting, focusing the driver’s attention – a new definition of a driver-centric layout.
Core to this concept are the two screens located either side of a compact steering wheel and angled towards the driver. Conventional dials have been eliminated, with all the vital information immediately in front of the driver via an additional slim screen located in the centre.
The left-side screen controls dynamics and performance, with the right screen controlling media and navigation. They are in the perfect ergonomic position: close to the steering wheel, close to hand, and therefore close to the line of vision.
Lower down, and again working on the left/right principle, are ergonomically refined rotary controls that change drive mode settings (on the left) and provide control of the transmission (on the right).
There are almost endless opportunities to personalise the interior through materials and colour. Automobili Pininfarina’s design team is particularly focused on offering ways of layering colours around the dashboard and door panels in a theme that simulates the flowing lines on the exterior of the car. Ambient lighting around the dashboard reflects the front LED and the LEDs on the wings at the rear.
The Battista: Engineered Beautifully by Automobili Pininfarina and Partners
The Battista’s performance targets are unachievable with an internal combustion engine. Electrification is today’s solution to unlocking a new experience and achieving unparalleled performance targets: 1900 hp, 200 Nm, 350 km/h (217 mph) top speed, zero to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in less than two seconds and zero to 300 km/h (186 mph) in less than 12 seconds.
But smashing traditional performance targets is far from Automobili Pininfarina’s only goal. Re‑defining vehicle dynamics, comfort, usability, and acceleration sprints through the performance envelope are just as challenging. The results will secure the Battista’s place in hypercar history, proving that electrification is no barrier to the unique experience of hypercar ownership.
Electrification is the catalyst to a new hypercar experience, a genuine powertrain performance option and a necessary engineering solution for the modern world. Therefore, just as with design, where Automobili Pininfarina works hand-in-hand with the best partner, so the engineering team, led by Chief Technical Officer Dr. Christian Jung, sought the best partner to provide the power behind the beauty.
The Battista presents the first results of a unique partnership with its key engineering partner, Rimac Automobili, which provides battery and drivetrain expertise, software and hardware.
Beneath the Skin of Battista
The Battista’s 450 kilometre (280 miles) range will cover virtually all possible journeys, especially as 90% of owners are expected to charge the car where it is garaged, and it will have the capability for DC fast charging. Long-distance driving is expected, the car’s ergonomic and luxurious interior reflects that, and by 2021 using App-based charging networks will be normal for many owners. The 10% who drive the car to its range limit will be well prepared.
The T-shaped lithium/manganese/nickel liquid-cooled 120 kWh battery pack’s weight distribution is configured to optimise the car’s dynamics. Four motors, one per wheel, mean torque vectoring becomes a key performance parameter, as it independently distributes torque and power to each wheel allowing for extreme dynamic opportunities. With well over twice the normal levels of torque that future Battista owners experience in their existing supercars, torque vectoring is required to manage infinitely variable dynamic responses in lieu of the traditional stability control and traction control systems that would simply not be able to cope with the sheer impact of this level of instant torque delivery.
The four motors are internal permanent magnet reduction systems in pairs, front and back, housed together yet working independently of each other. They have a near limitless and maintenance-free operating life and maximum torque from standstill which, in effect, provides an independent and ultra-flexible powertrain at each wheel.
Whilst the car’s electronic brain supports the driver to deliver a new dynamic driving experience, its braking system offers the back-up to match that performance. Massive 390 mm carbon ceramic discs with six-piston cast and painted monoblock calipers provide powerful fade-free deceleration and hugely effective brake regeneration to the battery. The active rear wing features an air brake function.
The benefits of individual motors supplied with power from a battery are manifest, but the challenge remains to package this completely new type of vehicle architecture within a carbon chassis and carbon-bodied car. The greatest opportunity is the low centre of gravity and near-perfect weight distribution that the battery supports when compared to an internal combustion engine-powered supercar, ultimately meaning that the Battista will feel lithe, agile and exciting across its dynamic range.
A full carbon monocoque, bonded carbon roof, rear carbon subframe with crash structures of carbon fibre and aluminium, and a full carbon body featuring lift and tilt butterfly wing style doors shows weight management and strength are the focus for the development team.