Wild acceleration for Pininfarina Battista electric supercar

A cutting-edge supercar with brutal performance characteristics is quicker than anything made by Ferrari – including F1 machines.

Electric cars are setting new performance benchmarks.

And they are coming to Australia.

The new Pininfarina Battista supercar has thrown down the gauntlet to battery-powered rivals with a new set of acceleration figures.

Pininfarina Battista hypercar.

Powered by four electric motors linked to a large 120kWh battery, the Battista makes enormous 1417kW and 2340Nm power figures.

That’s almost five times the power of conventionally fast cars such as the 285kW Toyota Supra coupe.

Designed and built in Italy, Pininfarina claims its car has “Formula 1 car-beating acceleration”.

That’s a bold claim, but one the manufacturer appears to back up.

Pininfarina Battista hypercar.

New testing in India shows the Battista can demolish the quarter mile (400 metre) benchmark used in drag racing in just 8.55 seconds, having reeled off a 100km/h sprint in 1.86 seconds.

Previous-generation V8-powered F1 machines need more than 9 seconds to reach 400 metres.

Put into context, the fastest petrol-powered performance car on sale for less than $200,000 might be the all-wheel-drive version of BMW’s M3, which needs 3.9 seconds to reach 100km/h, and 11.2 seconds to break the quarter mile.

Pininfarina Battista hypercar.

Stepping up to supercars, Ferrari’s latest 296 GTB hybrid has 610kW of power that helps it reach 200km/h in 7.6 seconds. The Battista needs just 4.75 seconds to reach the same speed.

The latest demo runs took place in India at the Natrax vehicle test facility at the behest of a key shareholder, Mahindra.

Independent journalists set speed records of 358.03km/h and 357.10km/h to become the fastest man and woman to drive on Indian soil

Renuka Kirpalani with the Pininfarina Battista hypercar.

Pininfarina chief executive Paolo Dellachà said “these speed records – and independent tests – have validated our ambition to create a new generation of hyper and luxury car leading with Battista, whereby electric power delivers performance that is simply unachievable in the world of ICE powertrains”.

Other manufacturers including Tesla, Rimac and Lotus are working on high-powered electric supercars.

Pininfarina is a European design house famous for shaping models for manufacturers such as Ferrari.

The marque is distributed in Australia by Melbourne’s Lorbek Luxury Cars showroom.

A small number of the machines have been sold to Australian customers ready to pay €1.98 million ($3.1m) plus optional extras and taxes that push it closer to $5 million drive-away.