The Pininfarina Battista didn’t just steal the show at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show; it claimed it like a conqueror staking claim a new and uninhabited land. The 1,900-horsepower electric hypercar not only promises to be the fastest and most powerful car to come out of Italy, but it’s probably there already. The Battista is swimming in so many superlatives it’s hard to imagine another début in 2019 that can upstage the sheer spectacle it provided in Geneva last week. The Battista also happens to feature a number of easter eggs, none more eye-catching than the “2019 Geneva” badge that’s sitting inside its headlights. The badge could mean different things to different people, but for the most part, it’s a nod to the Geneva Motor Show, the event that has hosted some of the most incredible cars penned and developed by the legendary Italian company. Given the shared history between the company and the show, there was no other place in the world to début the Battista except the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.

The Relationship Between Pininfarina and the Geneva Motor Show

As far as I can tell, the relationship between Pininfarina and the Geneva Motor Show dates back to the 1940s when the show hosted the début of the Maserati A6 1500 Berlinetta Speciale, which was designed by Pininfarina. Since then, the two entities have become synonymous with each other to the point that a year that went by without Pininfarina attending the Geneva Motor Show would come as a surprise to a lot of people. Classic models like the 1953 Lancia Aurelia PF200 C Spider, Fiat 8V Berlinetta Speciale, and the Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Pininfarina Series have two things in common: they all made their debuts at the Geneva Motor Show, and the cars themselves were all designed by Pininfarina.

The badge, while small, is really more than just a badge. It’s a celebration, not only of Pininfarina’s decades-long participation at the Geneva Motor Show, but the evolution of that partnership, specifically in recent years. See, the Geneva Motor Show hasn’t changed. It’s just gotten bigger. But, Pininfarina has evolved numerous times throughout the course of its history, most recently in 2015 when Indian auto giant Mahindra purchased the company with the intention of turning it into a full-fledged automaker. If anything, the “2019 Geneva” badge is Pininfarina’s way of saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Sure, Pininfarina doesn’t attend the Geneva Motor Show in some form or fashion every year, but when it does — as has been the case a handful of times this decade — it brings some of the most desirable concepts that have graced the floor of the world’s biggest auto show. Not a believer? Check out these four Pininfarina concepts and tell me otherwise.

2012 Pininfarina Cambiano

Showcased at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, the Pininfarina Cambiano Concept showcases all the things that make Pininfarina one of the greatest auto design houses in history. The concept featured unique styling, including the fanciful, glass-intensive roofline and the rather quirky three-door configuration with the pillars rear-hinged rear door on the passenger’s side. The concept also featured another Pininfarina design trademark: the clear, crisp lines and the fluid surface development. It’s clean. It’s sexy. It catches your attention. More than that, the Cambiano was also one of the first Pininfarina-penned concepts to feature a small turbine engine and four 60-kW electric motors, one for each wheel. Back then, battery technology was still in its infancy, which explains why one battery pack only had 127 miles of range on a single charge. In total, the Cambiano still offered almost 500 miles of range, which is still largely unattainable to this day.

That kind of setup helped it accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 4.2 seconds to go with a top speed of 171 mph. Compare these numbers to today’s electric cars, and the Cambiano’s numbers are skewed altogether. But that shouldn’t take away from its overall presentation. It was, and remains, one of the most classically designed Pininfarina concept cars that we’ve seen in recent memory.

Read our full review on the 2012 Pininfarina Cambiano

2013 Pininfarina Sergio Concept

Before the Pininfarina Battista arrived, the Sergio held court as the coolest concept car to come out of Pininfarina this decade. You don’t need to have 20/20 eyesight to know why. That thing is stunning in more ways than one. You could pick one of the Sergio’s many design details and point to it as a visual highlight, and there’d still be plenty more to choose from. It doesn’t matter if it's the floating bumper, the noticeable absence of a windshield or the aerodynamic headrests that are attached to the roll bars instead of the seats. The production model looked different from the concept, which was understandable considering that, for starters, it needed to have a windshield to be legal to drive on the road. Ferrari also installed a removable hardtop on the production model while the aforementioned headrests were incorporated back into the seats. A lot of the Ferrari Sergio’s components were also pilfered from the 458 Spider, including the tail lights, turn signals, side view mirrors, and, believe it or not, the entire interior.

The Sergio was powered by the same naturally aspirated 4.5-liter V-8 engine that produced 596 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque. The engine connected to a seven-speed, dual-clutch gearbox, which helped the Sergio sprint from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds to go along with a top speed of 198 mph. As expected, all six units of the Ferrari Sergio didn’t just end up in the hands of a random buyer. Ferrari actually hand-picked the six owners of the supercar with each buyer reportedly spending close to $3 million for a model. And to think, it all started with Pininfarina’s Sergio Concept.

Read our full review on the 2013 Pininfarina Sergio Concept

2016 Pininfarina H2 Speed Concept

Over the course of its time as one of the world’s finest coachbuilders, Pininfarina has designed and developed just about every kind of car you can think of. In 2016, Pininfarina added another feather in its cap when it unveiled the H2 Speed, a production-ready hydrogen-powered race car that the coachbuilder envisioned as the race car of the future. Visually, the H2 Speed Concept looked every bit like a concept that Pininfarina would design. It had all the sexy lines that we’ve come to expect from the design house. It was massive in size, too, measuring 185 inches long, 78.7 inches wide, and 42.8 inches high. Those dimensions made it bigger than a Formula One race car, though the concept’s design made it look more like an LMP1 racer than an actual F1 machine. For that, Pininfarina sourced the help of GreenGT, the same company that worked on the powertrain of the Citroen Survolt, to develop the H2 Speed’s powertrain. GreenGT proved up-to-the-task as the company was able to develop a full hydrogen system made up of two race electric motors that combined to produce 503 horsepower and a lightweight hydrogen fuel cell that was made up of two hydrogen tanks that can hold a total of 13.4 pounds of hydrogen and can be refilled in a matter of three minutes.

The entire setup allowed the H2 Speed to sprint from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.4 seconds to go with a top speed of 186 mph. Two years after Pininfarina unveiled the H2 Speed Concept in Geneva, the Italian coachbuilder returned in 2018 with a production-spec version of the concept, reigniting questions on whether hydrogen power could really hold the keys to the future of motor racing.

Read our full review on the 2016 Pininfarina H2 Speed Concept

2017 Pininfarina Fittipaldi EF7 Vision GT Concept

Pininfarina has proven over and over that when it comes to designing cars; there’s no limit to its imagination. Take the case of the 2017 Pininfarina Fittipaldi EF7 Vision GT, for example. The concept was actually the brainchild of former Formula One world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. It was the physical embodiment of his goal to build his own GT performance car. Obviously, Fittipaldi couldn’t have done it by himself. So he sought the help of Pininfarina to create his vision of a GT sports car. The result was this glorious concept that still gives me goosebumps to this day.But there's no other way to describe the Fittipaldi EF7 Vision GT Concept. There really isn’t. This is a work of art in so many ways. You can highlight the super aggressive front section, the sweeping curves that run for days, and the massive rear wing at the back.

Heck, even the concept’s yellow color provides a sparkling touch to the overall aesthetics of Pininfarina’s work. The EF7 Vision GT looks like a true GT track car, and it also performs like one. That’s in part due to the 4.8-liter dry-sump V-8 engine that's featured in the concept. The V-8 produces 600 horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque, which are more than enough for the EF7 Vision GT to justify its billing. Back when it debuted in 2017, Fittipaldi announced plans to actually build 39 units of the EF7 Vision GT — that’s one unit for each of his race wins in Formula One and IndyCar. Those plans have yet to materialize, but we wouldn’t put it past the former F1 champ or Pininfarina, for that matter, to find a way to bring this concept to life. Cross your fingers that it happens sooner than later.

Read our full review on the 2017 Pininfarina Fittipaldi EF7 Vision GT Concept

Onwards, together

The Battista is the latest Pininfarina masterpiece to grace the hallowed halls of the Geneva Motor Show, but it won’t be the last. That’s the kind of thing we can expect from Pininfarina and the show’s organizers. Whenever the Geneva Motor Show rolls around, you can be sure that Pininfarina will have a presence in it, in one form or another. The relationship between the two sides has grown over years and years of mutual admiration for the other. In many ways, the small “2019 Geneva” badge that was included inside the Battista’s headlamps is a small nod towards the rich and long-standing relationship between Pininfarina and the Geneva Motor Show. It’s a relationship that has existed well before a lot of us were born, and it’s a relationship that will still exist well after we’ve all returned to the soil.

2020 Pininfarina Battista - drivetrain specifications

Range

450 km

Acceleration 0-100 km/h

Under 2.0 secs.

Acceleration 0-300 km/h

Under 12.0 secs.

Power output

Up to 1,900 hp (1,400 kW)

Max. torque

Up to 2,300 Nm

Top speed Over

350 km/h

Drive

All-wheel-drive with torque vectoring function

Drive modes

5 different drive modes


Further Reading

Read our full review on the 2020 Pininfarina Battista.

Pininfarina's PF0 Electric Hypercar Wants To Redefine The Segment

Pininfarina Partners With Rimac For The First-Ever Pure Electric Hypercar

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Pininfarina H2 Speed.

Read our full review on the 2018 Pininfarina HK GT.

Read our full review on the 2015 Ferrari Sergio