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Transportation Power

Sportscar Manufacturer Debuts World's First All-Electric High-Performance Hypercar (newsweek.com) 99

There's something new in the world of expensive high-performance sportscars (or "hypercars".) Italian carmaker Automobili Pininfarina "has debuted the Battista, the first pure-electric hyper GT, on the streets of California as part of Monterey Car Week," reports Newsweek. (Alternate URL here.) The debut will give U.S. clients the chance to experience the 1,900 horsepower hypercar... [In a video] the Battista, crafted at Automobili Pininfarina's manufacturing facility in Italy, glides smoothly and quickly through California roads at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. The drive shows off the agility of the polished Impulso forged aluminum alloy wheels and exposed bodywork. Pulling off the road, the scissor doors swing open, highlighting the Black Exposed Signature Carbon bodywork.

Supplying the 1,900 hp is a 120-kilowatt-hour battery that powers four electric motors, one in each wheel, that gets about 1696 pound-feet of torque. On a single charge, the car is expected to get a range of over 310 miles.

With an emphasis on the company's "Pure Sound" philosophy and drawing from music theory, the bespoke design of the car is built to have a core frequency of 54 hertz (hz). Wanting to provide an emotional experience for the driver, the organic frequency will rise in multiples of 54 hz as the speed increases.

The company's product platform director of sports cars explains on their web site that "Every driver has an emotional bond with a car and the sound of Battista will nurture this connection, not by replicating a familiar car sound, but with one that radiates the beauty of Battista's design both inside and out. This way, the Battista will not only impress with its aesthetic appeal and performance, but also on a new emotional level enhanced through the sound."

The company's web site also calls it "the most powerful road-legal Italian sports car ever produced."
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Sportscar Manufacturer Debuts World's First All-Electric High-Performance Hypercar

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  • by ickleberry ( 864871 ) <web@pineapple.vg> on Sunday August 15, 2021 @05:39PM (#61695663) Homepage
    1900 Buggahoops is crazy But this talk about 54Hz sounds like make-believe BMW SoundAktor-style fakery. What are they doing? changing the drive signal to the motor or are the Hz just coming out of a speaker from Shenzhen?
    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      Any sound from engine wastes power. A quiet engine is an efficient engine. So a speaker alerting others in a pleasant manner is a reasonable compromise.
    • I would gander at structural resonance. They decided to tune to structure to 54hz.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It appears to be a speaker. All EVs have to have this feature at low speeds to warn pedestrians now, but quite a few performance models also pipe fake sounds into the cabin to give the driver some feedback. Jaguar have fake engine noises, for example.

      I can kinda see the point of it. One thing I noticed when I switched to electric is that it's really easy to exceed the speed limit unless you pay careful attention because there is little feedback. Nothing gets louder or changes pitch, there are no gears to cl

    • Wild guess, but wind noise most likely. There's a resonant frequency in my car at around 30 MPH that I've determined comes from the "spokes" (solid aluminum columns) starting to "whistle" (though it's much lower than any real whistle. Somewhere around 45-50 hz. I would imagine it wouldn't take much work to set up some "blades" somewhere in the vehicle that are exposed to massive amounts on wind when scooting down the road that resonate the same way.

    • One of the developers has been recorded humming louder and louder engine sounds that are played back over the speakers. They took inspiration from the secret cow level.

  • by crunchygranola ( 1954152 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @05:51PM (#61695685)

    Should have been in the summary. Inquiring minds want to know what this billionaire toy costs.

    • Yep, the one detail that matters more than the colour. The bottom line, if you like. The deal sealer. The crunch. The final word. What is the fucking price tag FFS.
      • When someone's making "hypercars", the old "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" quote applies.

        • 99.99% of people who read journalistic reviews of supercars do so for leisure. If you're thinking of buying you do what the journalist did and take a test drive.
        • I bet most of the orders will be shipped to the Arabian Peninsula.
        • When someone's making "hypercars", the old "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" quote applies.

          I find that a stupid saying. I don't care what is being reviewed the question of how much the thing costs should be mentioned. If people are to evaluate if something is a good product then how much it costs is a big part of that evaluation. When it comes to electric cars the cost will give some indication when or if the technologies in those cars will come to a product the person reading the review could afford. The decision to consider buying anything depends not only on what it can do but also how it

    • yea people want to know how big of a tax credit they will get due to be in EV.
      • by Chas ( 5144 )

        And the answer, according to Biden, is ZERO.

        If you're making more than 100K a year, you simply don't get a tax credit.

    • And it seems to similar in design, styling and power as the Rimac C2 (I think it's called)?

      Still, nice that these exist even if none of us will ever see one on the road.

      Hopefully the tech trickles down to affordable cars.

    • 1 Roadster [tesla.com] would be more than enough for me, and I'd save $2.65M.

    • ...you can't afford it.
  • Great (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @05:55PM (#61695687)

    Not only do we have to put up with the ricers and their fart nozzles, not only do we have to be attacked by the crappy Harley's and their mistuned engines, not only do we have Teslas with their speaker systems, now we have an electric car which is deliberately designed to sound something like the first two combined.

    It's amazing we aren't deaf being forced to listen to this every day.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      In my country, we have a saying:

      Big engine, small penis.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Remember how motorcyclists used to pretend that they needed loud motorbikes for their safety, while at the same time wearing all black and splitting lanes at high speed. If they were so worried about their safety, maybe they'd also try wearing high-vis, adding some flashing lights, riding slowly and cautiously, etc.

      But no, the reality is that they want to sound loud to gain attention, and to look 'cool'. It's the same reason some car drivers want loud cars.

      • by Moloth ( 2793915 )

        I used to ride a quiet sports bike and now roll around on louder cruiser. I rarely get cut off riding the cruiser as compared to it almost being a daily occurrence on the sports bike. So I think the sound really helps.

        • It's inconsiderate though. It's your choice to ride around on a tiny death-mobile. Annoying everyone in the houses/parks/etc you pass by isn't the right solution.
  • Sweet looking car.

    I'd rather have an EV minivan for 20K (US) that gets 310 miles per charge.

    • Re:Got to be honest (Score:4, Interesting)

      by NewtonsLaw ( 409638 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @06:27PM (#61695751)

      Actually the styling is a huge disappointment -- it looks like a "generic" supercar.

      Personally, I hate the fact that most modern cars all look the same. Yeah, I know it's form following function and getting the lowest Cd is the most important thing so they all look pretty similar but hell I miss the days when cars were all so different in styling.

      There was no way you'd mistake a Ford Thunderbird for a Corvette Stingray for instance and no way you'd mistake a Lamborghini Countach for a Porsche 911.\

      These days however (with only a few exceptions), there are far too many "hypercars" and "supercars" that seem to look so similar as to become almost boring.

      Even Lamborghini's re-release of the Countach was a disappointment because it didn't create the same "wow, that's different" impact that the original Countach did all those years ago.

      Two of the most different (to each other and all others) cars, and ironically two of the most beautiful cars of the last century were the Lamborghini Countach and the E-Type Jag.

      This new "hypercar" can't hold a candle to either -- in terms of its styling :-(

      • Actually the styling is a huge disappointment -- it looks like a "generic" supercar.

        Yeah but at only $2.9 million, you cant expect something really exotic right off the lot... once you add a spoiler on top of that spoiler, and do a minion based full body wrap that thing will look pretty sweet.

      • Re:Got to be honest (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @07:03PM (#61695837)

        I do admit styling is getting common. It looks just like every other hypercar/supercar out there with LED headlamps, "aggressive" styling, and pretty much nothing new. Other than maybe a few curves, is that something that has a timeless look about it that is unique?

        Even the ritzy car companies are making stuff that looks identical. Bentley cars have a few cues, but they look almost identical to Honda, Toyota, etc. in their CUV line. Rolls still has their unique element, but even that is starting to fade.

        Maybe break from the pack? How about an electric car styled like a 1970s Lincoln Town Car with the padded roof, and opera windows? Those vehicles were decently sized, so there would be plenty of room for the battery bank. Something interesting to look at, which 10-20 years from now, people will still appreciate the style and design behind the car. Or maybe go with an art deco style with a cool hood ornament?

        • I do admit styling is getting common. It looks just like every other hypercar/supercar out there with LED headlamps, "aggressive" styling, and pretty much nothing new. Other than maybe a few curves, is that something that has a timeless look about it that is unique?

          Mostly it looks like the current technical definition of a "sports car". Agreed a lot of exotics have that same general shape, because it is the shape that a huge amount of development has found works best aerodynamically given the other constraints imposed by regulatory or design requirements (mid engine, closed cockpit, closed wheel, etc).

          They do all tend to look like IMSA prototype class cars, like you would see at Lemans or Daytona. The race cars all look the same too, you can mostly tell them apa

        • by shoor ( 33382 )

          If I were rich enough and shameless enough, I might go for a Duesenberg clone.
          Supposedly the expression "It's a doozy!" comes from Duesenberg, but I'm probably showing my age by even being familiar with the expression.

        • A few years ago, if you asked me which car I'd want I'd say a Chrysler PT Cruiser. I didn't know anything about it's internals or whether it was too expensive but it looked like a car of the early to mid 1900s and I loved that.
      • Hate is such a strong emotion, it's not to be trivially wasted on trifles like car shapes. I hate this ...
      • And yet people were giving Elon Musk shit for the Cybertruck styling. Just imagine these same dickheads back when the Countach was released. It doesn't even look like a car! It only fits two people! You can't see out the back window! It fails as a car!

      • The Lamborghini Countach looked a lot like the Ferrari Testarossa.

  • Ffs, do the research, THEN post the story.

    • by zlives ( 2009072 )

      Low end body and interior with a battery that overheats if you push it.
      But they are first and made the push for everyone to follow. Still doesn;t make it a hyper car or even a luxury sports car.

      • So being fast doesn't count, only the body work ?

        It's almost as if fans of over-priced cars - like fans of over-priced phones - are vain and stupid, and care nothing about the actual performance of what they are buying.

        • by zlives ( 2009072 )

          And what is performance going 0-60 in straight line once or maybe twice before cooling or going to a track and racing it
          Anyway my point was about “hypercar” and that category is only for the super rich that can afford unique autos
          For me when i compare a 100+K car as a daily driver i gotta sit in it and be seen in it so looks and interior matter. Not just going fast once got the f of it.
          Buy a motorcycle.

    • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      The next poor quality car from the world's poorest quality car manufacturer? The latest disappointment from a company with a sociopathic CEO that knows nothing about cars and is stuck in a 70's muscle car mentality? A mediocre sedan with the world's worst paint and interior upholstery? A new car most likely to have parts fly off in the first few miles of ownership? Biggest poser yet from the world's biggest poser car company?

      The "Tesla Plaid" may be a lot of things, mostly bad, but it is not this. Do t

  • The last time they produced a car was in 2008, a Mitsubishi Colt, I kid you not.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Hilarious, how the name pretends these cars are for something "sports" related, while in reality they are rather expensive penis enlargement prosthetics.
    • We all know people buy them to signal their wealth but I've always assumed they were called sports cars because they're pretty similar to some GT models actually used in autosport competitions.
  • by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @06:27PM (#61695747)
    In that rarified price range I for one would hope each cell in the battery pack is lovingly hand fitted and assembled by multi-generational Italian craftspeople.
  • So many Tesla critics were upset with grandiloquent naming of features like auto pilot ...

    This takes hyping of features to an entirely new plane...

  • First? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @06:50PM (#61695805) Journal

    There have been people test-driving this thing around for months;

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    They seem pretty matched for specs except the Nevera has almost 50% more torque. It's also apparently cheaper at $2.4M vs $2.9M...
    =Smidge=

    • The reason there are so many EV sports cars being produced right now is that they are all using the same EV drive train (direct drive axial flux motors - same thing most Formula E teams are using - there are a couple of manufacturers of these systems). You can buy this drive train yourself. With the massive simplification of the vehicle mechanics from going EV, along with the reducing cost of carbon composite construction, it's just becoming more and more feasible to build these cars in low volumes.

      My predi

      • > The reason there are so many EV sports cars being produced right now is that they are all using the same EV drive train

        Well this is demonstrably false. Where'd you even get this idea?

        Rimac doesn't use any stock parts - everything is custom manufactured for them including the motors - and has one motor per wheel. Formula E cars do not use direct drive but do in fact have multi-ratio transmissions. Tesla is the only manufacturer I know of that has compact, self-contained drive units that are standardized

  • I bet it'll sell well in Miami, at least. Not so much in Havana, though.

  • the chance to experience the 1,900 horsepower hypercar

    Warren Buffet once said they don't ring a bell at the top.

    The hell they don't.

  • Someones made an electric car.

  • But all-electric?? Somebody gonna be Listed[tm] for this sacrilege to the Plan[tm]!

  • Does every bit of crazy nonsense get commodified these days? At least belief in the superiority of A=432 over A=440 doesn't result in a waste of anything but rhetoric and hot air -- or it didn't until now.

  • Why is it that the cars Pininfarina designs for others, including Ferrari, look better than this one?

  • 120 KWH battery on 1425 KW motor means that your fully charged battery will last for 5 minute at full power (the car will disintegrate much before that if you keep it at full power)!

  • by ThumpBzztZoom ( 6976422 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @08:45PM (#61696005)

    Rimac and Lotus would like a word about being this being the "First". Rimac is actually on their second all electric hypercar, the Nevera, following up the Concept One. The Lotus Evija was first shown in 2019. The Nevera and Evija have slightly more power than the Pininfarina.

    Also, embedded in the "frequency of the universe" nonsense was this gem:
    "As a multiple of 432 Hz, Automobili Pininfarina’s engineers have chosen 54 Hz as the core frequency for Battista"

    54 is not a multiple of 432. That's not how multiples work.

    • It's part of the 432 Hz for 'A' tuning New Age bullshit though, using pythagorean harmonic ratios 54 hz is one of the notes.

      • I'm going to get one & use it to re-ionise & fine-tune the electrons in my quantum field consciouness domain.
      • specifically, 54Hz is 3 octaves below 432Hz.
      • I know that, that still does not make 54 a multiple of 432. There would need to be an integer that you could multiply 432 by to get 54, and 0.125 is not an integer.

    • by schwit1 ( 797399 )

      Rimac will produce 150 vehicles and is currently in the process of homologation for the global market. The first deliveries are expected to take place in 2021.[Nevera is manufactured in the same factory and at the same rate (of roughly 1 per week) as the Pininfarina Battista, which is based on the same platform.

      • by shilly ( 142940 )

        I'd forgotten that Pininfarina had commissioned a load of the tech used in the Battista from Rimac, which makes this "first" nonsense even more nonsensical and seems like a deliberate piece of rudeness towards Mate Rimac and team.

  • "through California roads at speeds of over 100 miles per hour."

    So speed limits don't apply to EVs in CA then?

    • by dohzer ( 867770 )

      Well anyone who owns this is going to be wealthy. So no, the speed limits don't apply to them.

  • Any comments on enjoying the California scenery and roads at 100mph?

  • That's pretty slow. My $3000 second hand Renault Clio (compact thing that an American wouldn't consider a car) goes faster than that.

    If you're going to talk about something why not write actual interesting specs rather than "it has 1900bhp and goes as fast as a 200bhp family sedan".

  • Units (Score:5, Funny)

    by dromgodis ( 4533247 ) on Monday August 16, 2021 @01:24AM (#61696399)

    Supplying the 1,900 hp is a 120-kilowatt-hour battery that powers four electric motors, one in each wheel, that gets about 1696 pound-feet of torque

    That's an impressive amount of mixed units for one sentence.

  • This looks an aweful lot like the Rimac Nevera, the specs are basically the same: 1900 bhp, 4 motors and the 120 kWh battery.
    • by 4im ( 181450 )

      Not surprising, being that the Battista is sharing the same platform. That should have figured in the submission. Rimac is also basically taking over Bugatti.

  • We need small and efficient electric cars to get rid of millions of gas powered ones. Not some fancy 1900 hp race cars.

    • China have a huge range of electric vehicles ranging from very good down to very small and cheap (some as low as $2000). Volkswagen also has a hug number of models on the Chinese market (I think around 30 models). They are (by Chinese law) collaborations with other Chinese companies though. For some reason none of these are available in the EU/US markets (at least as far as I am aware). Is it that they're happy to keep charging $30k+ in EU/US while remaining competitive elsewhere? Who knows
  • Pininfarina claims a 0-62 mph time of less than two seconds, 0-186 mph time of less than 12 seconds, and a top speed of "at least" 217 mph.

  • 54 Hz will sound like you're moving right along. In North America with 60 Hz power, 54 Hz will sound like your generator can't keep up with demand.
  • I want my Lambo to put out 5 to 9hz on the outside that increases in amplitude the faster I drive. The interior will have the normal Lambo internal combustion sound.

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