A fully electric SUV is also planned.
India’s Mahindra & Mahindra has big plans for Pininfarina after acquiring a 76-percent controlling stake in the famous design house and engineering firm several years ago. Earlier this week, the list of car manufacturers grew to include Europe-based Automobili Pininfarina, which will be managed separately from the other company with which it’s sharing the fabled name. That being said, the original company known by its full name as Pininfarina S.p.A. will be in charge of designing cars for the newly formed automaker.
While the focus will be on fully electric SUVs, the first model of the bunch will belong to an entirely different segment of the market. Automobili Pininfarina’s boss, Michael Perschke, told Automotive News Europe that the first order of business will be to develop an electric hypercar. It will cost almost €2 million or about $2.47M at current exchange rates and will be out at some point in 2020.
“It will be a true hypercar,” said Perschke, adding it will be able to cover up to 300 miles (500 kilometers) between charges. Details about the powertrain are not available at this point, but the yet-unnamed hypercar will have enough electric punch to hit 62 mph (100 kph) in under two seconds, so it will play in the same league with the second-generation Tesla Roadster (1.9 seconds). As a side note, Elon Musk promises a “special option package that takes it to the next level.”
The man in charge at Automobili Pininfarina also disclosed preliminary details about plans for a family of SUVs by mentioning the cheapest of them all will cost approximately €150,000 ($185,200). Perschke went on to mention the high-riding models along with the hypercar will take advantage of Pininfarina’s 88 years of designing cars. At the same time, the cars will leverage on Mahindra’s involvement in Formula E by putting to good use the engineering solutions developed for the all-electric series.
The race is on to launch the world’s quickest EV taking into account both Pininfarina’s hypercar and the new Tesla Roadster are due in 2020. It remains to be seen which one will be out first. There’s also the oddly interesting Xing Mobility Miss R, another fully electric high-performance machine, which might actually beat them to the punch since it's slated to go on sale next year. It's aiming to complete the 0-62 mph task in just 1.8 seconds and will carry a starting price of $1 million.
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