Automobili Pininfarina outlines vision for electric luxury utility vehicles

Italian car design house Automobili Pininfarina has outlined a plan to take the lead in the extremely niche but potentially equally lucrative hypercar market as it gears up to launch its own multi-million dollar, all-electric version at the end of 2020.

In contrast to the hyper-performance electric sports-cars such as the Battista, first presented at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show in March, Pininfarina will focus on a new segment that it is naming “luxury utility vehicles”.

Pininfarina has not released any hints of what these may look like, or if they will be capable of the 200km/hr plus speeds typical of hypercars, but we imagine it will be inspired by the all-electric K350 seem at the Beijing Motor Show in April 2018 shown above.

The Italian company has joined forces with engineering and technology giant Bosch and automotive parts conglomerate Benteler, to develop a new electric vehicle platform which it plans to use in the development of the two “luxury utility vehicles”

“We’re building a scalable EV platform…to produce multiple products all designed by Pininfarina,” said Automobili Pininfarina CEO Michael Perschke in an announcement.

“It allows us to deliver in the future a lot of beautiful electric cars, Italian cars, high performance cars based on an extremely powerful electric performance architecture in terms of battery power and motor power.”

As part of the plan to create a second and third electric vehicle model under the iconic Pininfarina brand, the carmaker will look to purchasing in 2020 an additional manufacturing facility in Italy to handle the multiple product lines.

“Visionary Italian design is the past and the future and as we head towards celebrating Pininfarina’s 90^th anniversary in 2020, we are inventing new markets and new client experiences, and we want to underscore our commitment to Italy through production of pure-electric vehicles there,” said Perschke in a private briefing ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show.

“Our strategic collaboration with Bosch and Benteler unlocks the opportunity for growth, through development of high performance EV architecture to be deployed by Automobili Pininfarina and potentially other OEM clients,” says Perschke.

“The launch of Battista heralded the arrival of our exciting new brand, and these are the plans that give us a strong platform for future success.”

There is no current timeline available as yet for the two luxury utility vehicles planned by Pininfarina, which is currently well into preparation and development of the Battista.

Prototypes of the Battista hypercar will be ready this northern European winter for cold weather testing before it allows customers to take first test drive in the spring.