Where to begin with the Pininfarina Battista? It’s a model that marks the establishing of Automobili Pininfarina as a new car company in its own right, building on the heritage of the renowned design house.

As a result of Automobili Pininfarina deciding to make its own car with its own name on it, it decided that it needed to make a splash. And what could make more of a splash than an electric hypercar with 1900hp (1876bhp) that costs €1.98m? Call it £2 million depending on the exchange rate and local taxes.

Performance figures are equally startling. The 0-62mph time is under two seconds. The top speed is more than 217mph. And it’ll do 0-186mph in under 12 seconds.

Under the skin, the Battista shares a reasonable amount with the Rimac Nevera. The two companies are ‘frenemies’, they say. Friendly rivals who helped develop the carbon fibre tub, the aluminium subframes that hold the suspension and the drivetrain.

The drivetrain is a 120kWh battery which drives an electric motor at each wheel – each rear motor makes 603bhp and each front one 335bhp. Any one of them alone would make reasonable progress. Put them all together and, well, you can expect fireworks.

Pininfarina will build just 150 Battistas over the next three years. This is one of the first. Our man Matt Prior tries it in both places it has to excel: on the road and the race track.

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