Famous Italian design house's first model to offer Bugatti Chiron-levels of acceleration will be co-developed with Rimac.
Pininfarina has confirmed its first vehicle on the journey to becoming a stand-alone pure-electric car brand will be a wild hypercar that will harness Formula E technology and be co-developed by Croatian electric car-maker, Rimac.
Announcing that its forthcoming hypercar will become a halo product for Pininfarina, the Italian design house also confirmed several more pure-electric models are already in the pipeline.
Set to be launched in 2020, the all-new hypercar is almost certain to be heavily inspired by the H2 Speed that was unveiled at the 2016 Geneva motor show (pictured), although that car came equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain instead of the proposed pure-electric running gear.
Fortunately for the Milan-based design company, Pininfarina will benefit from parent company Mahindra’s investment in Formula E motor racing, potentially using the same electric motors as the race cars and a development on the high-flow lithium-ion battery packs.
To help develop the tech, Pininfarina has confirmed it will buy in expertise from Croatian pure-electric hypercar maker, Rimac.
Not only will Rimac help integrate the powertrain, the pure-electric supercar maker will also supply Pininfarina with a new modular platform that it will base its hypercar and forthcoming vehicles on.
Developed under the codenamed PF-Zero, Pininfarina says work has already begun on the hyeprcar and it will follow up its Bugatti-beater with not one, but three SUVs.
The fastest of the SUVs, has been created to go head-to-head with vehicles like the Lamborghini Urus or Bentley Bentayga.
Reportedly set to come with a mighty 140kWh battery back and around 700kW, the large SUV will hit 100km/h in less than three seconds.
The smaller SUVs (set to rival Porsche’s Cayenne and Macan) will sit on the same platform and come with less powerful batteries but still offer class-leading performance.
Heading up the mission to evolve Pininfarina from a design house and coachbuilder to a full-blown car manufacturer in its own right is former Audi India boss, Michael Perschke, who has 25 years working within the industry.
So far Pininfarina is said to have received $A130 million from Mahindra, with the plan of topping up its investment to around $A650 million over the next five years.
The switch to car-making was only recently announced last March at the Geneva motor show by then CEO, and family member Paulo Pininfarina.
“My father’s dream was to build a car company and his father’s dream was also to build a car company.
“Now I plan for that dream to come true,” Pininfarina announced.
Founded and run by the Pininfarina family since 1930, the famous supercar stylist came close to bankruptcy until it was saved in 2015 by Mahindra, which reportedly paid just $38 million for a three-quarter stake in the design house.
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