Italy may be famous for being the home of Ferrari and Lamborghini, but a new automaker is looking to stake its own claim with a promise to develop an electric car that’s capable of accelerating from 0 to 62 mph in two seconds flat. The company calls itself Zava and the electric car it’s developing is called the “Prometheus.”

If it’s claim of making the Prometheus the fastest accelerating car to ever hit production is staggering in it of itself, the other proposed details about the electric hypercar are just as impressive. For instance, the Italian startup is looking to use four electric motors on the car, each adding up to produce a total output of 1,341 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque while still being capable of covering 300 miles on a single charge. The electric hypercar also comes with a proposed top speed of 217 mph, which isn’t actually all that high considering industry standards. But if that two-second-flat sprint time to 62 mph ends up being accurate, the top speed isn’t going to matter as much.

Beyond those impressive power and performance numbers, very little is known about the Prometheus other than new renderings that reveal what looks like a closed-cockpit, cab-forward racer with a sharp nose and a rare dual fin rear spoiler. Zava hasn’t revealed any details pertaining to the car’s technological features, but the automaker did say that more information will be revealed sooner than later.

In the meantime, wrap your heads around Zava’s performance claims and ask yourself if the Prometheus will likely end up in production or remain a fantasy like so many other startup exotics that never amounted to anything more than wallpapers.

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Don't get too excited just yet

It’s very easy to get swept up in the numbers that Zava is promising but we’ve all seen this song and dance before. A lot of other startups have promised faster and more powerful cars before and few have actually delivered. This isn’t a slight against Zava, not even the least bit. This is just a realistic look at what the industry is like for these niche automakers so we can at least manage our expectations.

It’s especially true considering what Zava is aiming for. There’s a reason why no automaker in history has ever built a production car that can sprint from 0 to 62 mph in two seconds flat. It’s incredibly difficult to do that, especially when it comes to the preparation and development of an engine that will allow a car to hit those speeds. I don’t think it’s going to be impossible and we might as well see one do that in the future.

Maybe it’s Zava or maybe it’s another automaker. I just can’t give my full and undivided attention on the Italian startup until it can show some results, which at this point it hasn’t done. I’m intrigued as it is now, but like most, I know well enough not to get too excited about what the company is painting with the Prometheus picture until more details become available.