The one-off Pininfarina Battista Targamerica is a 1874bhp hypercar with a humidor
One-off rebodied Battista makes its debut at the 2024 Monterey Car Week, marking Pininfarina’s return to coachbuilding
Automobili Pininfarina is revealing a one-off rebodied Battista at the 2024 Monterey Car Week. Named the Battista Targamerica, it’s described by Pininfarina as a one-of-one creation for a client, and its first one-off coachbuilt special as a car company in its own right.
The Targamerica has been created to a brief from its client, and removes the Battista’s roof, making it an open barchetta. A targa top has been created for the car to be fitted in poor weather, but it has been created first and foremost to be driven in fully open form. The Targamerica name, chosen by its customer, describes both the roof configuration and the fact that the car will be based in America.
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As in the Battista coupe, a huge 120kWh battery pack drives a set of four independent electric motors for a ludicrous 1874bhp output. The result is a quoted sub-2sec 0-60mph time and a top speed of over 186mph...
Pininfarina is making a point of revealing the car at The Quail event during Monterey Car Week, as it marks 12 months since the company announced it would be embarking on coachbuilding projects and one-of-one creations for clients alongside its series production car projects. It considers the Targamerica to be proof of its commitment to achieving such projects within a tight timescale.
‘This was not only a tough project but also very fast,’ explained Automobili Pininfarina CEO Paolo Dellachà to evo. ‘The customer told us that he wanted it for the next Quail, which gave us nine months to complete the car. ‘The car you see here is not a concept – it is the finished car, and purely a one off,’ he adds.
Removing the roof has also meant completely redesigning the Battista’s doors, abandoning their usual two-hinge layout for a single-hinge design. Such a comprehensive redesign was aided by the inherent stiffness of the Battista’s carbonfibre monocoque. ‘Opening the roof did not make any issue to overall stiffness,’ Dellachà says, adding that the carbon case for the battery pack also increases overall rigidity.
Part of the inspiration for the Battista Targamerica comes from another Pininfarina one-off: the Ferrari Testarossa Spider created in 1986 for then-Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. Horizontal feature lines in the rear luggage opening are references to the Testarossa’s line-dominated design, and the car’s silver exterior paintwork likewise. Other details are picked out in blue, including the aero wings ahead of the rear wheels.
A particular feature requested by the customer is a cigar holder and humidor built into an aluminium and glass case between the seats. It’s back-lit and changes colour according to which driving mode is selected.
Pininfarina says that further one-of-one projects, working with clients to create cars that reflect their personality, are planned. We can expect two strands to the company in future: volume production models (albeit low-volume, in the hundreds rather than the thousands), and one-off and few-off specials.
‘Coachbuilding is part of the brand history from Pininfarina’s beginnings,’ says Dellachà. Referencing the current Battista chassis, he says Automobili Pininfarina could create ‘one or two, maximum three, one-off projects on this platform.’ He hints that ‘there might still be something coming in the next year.’
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That will be the case for Pininfarina’s next platform too, which has been previewed by 2023’s Pura Vision concept.
Dellachà suggests that the next concept car evolution of the Pura Vision is imminent, which will preview a new product line. ‘The Pura Vision was not intended to be a pure SUV but more of a crossover,’ he hints.
We can expect the new platform to form the basis of one or two – ‘a maximum of three,’ Dellachà says – new models, while ‘still leaving space for one-of-one projects.’
So far Automobili Pininfarina has concentrated on low-volume and ultra-low-volume cars: the Battista is limited to 150 cars (not all of which have yet been sold) and the open-top B95 to ten cars (all of which have been accounted for) but its next model line will be produced in higher numbers – relatively.
‘We want to increase quite massively the number of clients,’ Dellachà says, ‘but when I say massively, that doesn’t mean mass market. I mean some hundreds of cars – no more than that.’
With that in mind, we can expect a high price tag in accordance with the cars’ positioning as a low-volume, luxury product: Dellachà tells evo we can expect a price ‘in the region of €400,000 to €500,000.’
