Pininfarina Battista nears production
As Pininfarina’s electric hypercar completes its first high-speed tests, meet its mastermind
René Wollmann knows a thing or two about electrification and ultra-high-performance cars. And now the German engineer has combined his expertise to deliver an ultra-high-performance electric car, 2021’s 1874bhp Pininfarina Battista, which has just moved a big step closer to completion by exceeding all expectations during tests at the Nardo proving ground.
Wollmann, now Pininfarina’s director of sports cars, ended his AMG career leading work on the astonishing Project One. But the car he first worked on at Merc’s performance division was, if anything, even more remarkable: the SLS Electric Drive.
THE SLS ELECTRIC DRIVE REMIND ME?
That car was a pure-electric version of the SLS, Merc’s gullwing-doored two-seat GT from a decade ago. At the time it was the first all-electric AMG and the most powerful AMG. Its four electric motors, each one driving a wheel independently, delivered a total of 740bhp and 738lb ft.
AMG’S PROJECT ONE REMIND ME?
It first surfaced in 2017 as the Project One show car, and by the summer of 2020 was being tested in prototype form. It has a 1086bhp hybrid powertrain combining a single-turbo 1.6-litre V6 with four electric motors: one for each front wheel, one on the V6’s crank and one within the turbocharger itself.
It has a carbonfibre monocoque chassis, an eight-speed transmission and all-wheel steering. Although track-focused, it’s designed to be road-legal. First deliveries are due this year.
AND WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR THE BATTISTA? The electric Battista is the first own-brand production model from Italian design house Pininfarina, now owned by Indian industrial giant Mahindra. The powertrain comes from Rimac, the tyres from Pirelli and the carbon-ceramic brakes from Brembo, but the crucial job of knitting it all together has been done in-house. Which is where Wollmann’s expertise comes in.
The first of the 150 hand-built cars are due to reach wealthy customers in the next few months, at a price likely to be around €2m. The plan is to follow it with a range of luxury EVs.
Pininfarina’s decades of making cars look and feel special should help the Battista stand out in what will soon become a crowded field of high-performance EVs.
‘Heritage is what you need today,’ said Wollmann. ‘We want beautiful design, beautiful materials, to get everything you’re used to in the hypercar segment, but all electric.
‘Hypercars are very di cult,’ added Wollmann, one of very few people who can talk in the plural about hypercars they’ve worked on. ‘You’re inventing a lot of stuff. But in this case, the first prototype test was surprisingly very positive.’
WHAT DOES IT SHARE WITH THOSE TWO AMGS?
The big carryover is the motor-at-each-corner thinking of the SLS. Wollmann recalls that 12 years ago, working with Bosch on the electric motors, his eyes were opened to the cornering advantages of torque vectoring. ‘From that day onwards, for me it was clear that this is really potent, much more agile, with four independent e-motors. Of course it’s special when they’re so powerful.’ In the case of the Battista, the two front motors each have 335bhp, the rears 604bhp. Total torque is 1696lb ft.
‘Hypercars are very di cult. You’re inventing a lot of stu ’
René Wollmann, Pininfarina’s director of sports cars