2022 Pininfarina Battista First Drive Review: Worth the Name

The numbers boggle the mind: 1,900 horsepower, 60 mph in 1.8 seconds, and 186 mph in less than 12 clicks, or about the time it took the groundbreaking McLaren F1 to go just 135 mph . Is it any wonder that with a ridiculous spec sheet and starting price of $ 2 million, the 2022 Pininfarina Battista seems immune to exaggeration?

Despite its absurd performance and stratospheric price, the Battista looks almost too pretty to be brutal. Breathtaking styling was a must for the first production vehicle from the traditional design house, whose charismatic “P” logo adorned countless Italian bodies, from Lancias, Fiats and Maseratis to no fewer than 64 Ferraris.

Electrifying electrification

The Battista shares a powertrain and carbon fiber monocoque with the Rimac Nevera, whose chiseled angles are more blunt weapon than scalpel; The oceanic curves and subtle contours of the Battista manage to be sensual and threatening at the same time. Somehow the Battista seems to be less than the sum of its electrified parts, an empirical sleight of hand that promises a lot on paper, but does not keep due to the trouser fit. Spoiler alert: it’s perfectly okay to admit we were wrong. Paolo Dellacha, Head of Product and Engineering at Pininfarina, supports the idea that the Italian competitor has its own taste.

“The vehicle drives very, very, very differently from the Nevera,” emphasizes Dellacha.

The lack of a drift mode is just an indication of the Battista’s focus on fine handling and good balance. Under the beautiful parts is a T-shaped 120 kilowatt hour battery that conducts energy through four electric motors. The quartet puts down 1,741 pound-feet in all on all four corners, with optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires – the same rubber the Porsche 911 GT2 RS uses – tasked with handling the anger.

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The standard setup uses 20-inch wheels and is available with a choice of tires (including winter options), but our tester wears a staggered setup with 20s at the front and 21s at the rear. Six-piston brake calipers from Brembo clamp onto two-piece carbon-ceramic discs to perform braking tasks, while the drive train also uses energy from regeneration and can control brake temperatures by relying more on regeneration if necessary. The double wishbone suspension includes adaptive KW dampers, while torque vectoring improves agility and yaw control.

Lift the V-shaped doors to slide in, and the cabin showcases a luxurious array of authentic materials, from machined and anodized aluminum buttons to buttery-soft leather. Up front is a small digital speedometer the size of a phone, flanked by two tablet-shaped touchscreens. The interior materials have an environmentally conscious touch – Pininfarina used olive leaves to tan the skin and reused fishing nets for the doormats. But the crux of the matter is the switchgear, especially the dial, which, with a firm twist of cool metal, selects one of five driving modes.

The hilariously named Furiosa includes track-oriented calibrations for a 2 Fast 2 Furious experience.

Calma offers maximum regeneration and a lazy throttle response for trips through the city. Pura removes some dullness without sacrificing performance, and Energica brings in a bit more warmth, while the hilariously named Furiosa includes track-oriented calibrations for a 2 Fast 2 Furious experience.

Climbing the ladder creates an escalating background noise through two external and 10 internal loudspeakers for a dramatic effect, while a fifth Carattere setting (Italian for “character”) offers individually adjustable throttle, power output, traction and ESP settings. Oddly enough, Pininfarina has tied the regeneration levels to the driving modes and drivers cannot adapt spontaneously. For those who care (we know you’re out there), the Battista promises an EPA range of 310 miles and a 180-kilowatt fast charge that takes the battery from 20 to 80 percent in less than 25 minutes Capacity can be brought.

Road runner

Since government regulations require that certain pre-production vehicles follow a leading car, Pininfarina Chassis and Engineering Manager Georgios Syropoulos accompanied us on my city tour of Palm Desert in a Tesla Model 3 with two engines. It’s a fitting sled like the one he developed (and several other Tesla’s), not to mention the Lotus GT4 racing cars he worked on as a technical consultant.

The Battista certainly cuts a fine figure on public roads, with swiveling necks and camera phones that slide right and left. And yet it feels downright tame on moderate throttle in milder modes, with linear force build-up and intuitive throttle response. The steering feel is isolated but moderately communicative, and you would never know that oceans of power lurk beneath the calm facade unless you switched to more aggressive attitudes.

The Battista certainly cuts a fine figure on public roads, with swiveling necks and camera phones that slide right and left.

Choose Furiosa and the torque flows smoothly and powerfully – so intense, in fact, that you can quickly lose the road in front of you, even as you chase after a hot Model 3 who is furiously driven by the guy in charge of his road. hugging dealings. This chase turns into a Sisyphus cat-and-mouse game as the Battista feels like it’s barely trying as the Tesla winds its way through the curves and hangs desperately on the road at warp speed. Though the torque vectoring system was tied into the Energica setting for safety reasons, the Battista still turned sharply into a corner, with its Cup 2 Rs showing solid turn in, a little understeer, and smooth progress from the middle of the corner to the Offer exit.

Put it in

With just one test car for four journalists, Pininfarina limited our road trip to part of Highway 74 before quickly charging the Battista and taking it to the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, about an hour from our home camp. The 2.68 mile desert route has few visual landmarks, making it difficult to learn and remember.

Unlocked by a wriggling pedestrian car and unleashed in Furiosa mode, the Battista reacts with a violent thrust to a step on the accelerator pedal and generates a longitudinal force of up to 2.2 Gs.Pininfarina recorded up to 1.8 Gs temporarily on the Nardo test track Lateral acceleration and 1.4 Gs continuous (although we may have had a little less lateral force as the torque vectoring system wasn’t in its most aggressive setting during our test).

Unleashing nearly 2,000 horsepower in a straight line is a literally breathtaking move. In its unbridled glory, the Battista’s four engines end on a combination of anger and suppleness that creates a sensation even more astounding than the numbers suggest. Drop the hammer and look waaaay ahead, and boom, you’re already there. Unlike practically any car with an internal combustion engine, the effect is really instantaneous.

Without having to force the atmosphere into the combustion chambers (and / or speed up turbos), the Pininfarina’s electrons turn into kinetic energy before you have time to process the whole nasty transaction. The carbon-ceramic brakes work well enough to make the driver feel like they may have stopped far too early for the turn.

Pininfarina’s attempt at founding marks a formidable debut for a brand previously known for embellishing the creations of other automakers.

We only had three laps in the Battista before handing it over to the next journalist (again, frugality was important due to triple-digit ambient temperatures and significant battery drain), but in our short time it delivered an almighty force with handling that defied its 4,400-pound Empty weight, even if its torque vectoring system was not fully functional.

After a few more months of fine-tuning before the Battista sees its first customer by the end of the year (and its first U.S. delivery will be in the first quarter of 2022), Pininfarina’s inaugural attempt marks a formidable debut for a brand previously known for serving other automakers embellish ‘creations. Working with Rimac on the powertrain was perhaps the smartest step the design house could have made, as it offered a platform they could customize themselves without a huge investment.

If you’re wondering who is spending seven figures on an electric hypercar, think of the elderly gentleman who tested a Battista during Monterey Car Week and feared it might not be comfortable enough for him. “No other car has offered more comfort and smoothness than my Chiron,” he is supposed to have said after his test drive. “Now I finally have an upgrade.”

Correction: An earlier version of this test showed that the Battista’s torque vectoring system was not active during our test. This was wrong. It was locked in the Energica setting of our pre-series tester as a security measure. In production versions of the Battista, the torque vectoring system adapts to the selected driving mode. This review has been updated to reflect this new information. We regret the mistake.