► New Pura Vision concept car revealed
► Pininfarina envisions a range of new EVs
► This concept previews how they’ll look
Confidence, it seems, is brimming at Automobili Pininfarina. After the team designed and crafted the Battista electric hypercar using Rimac tech, it’s hungry for more. The next step comes with the Pura Vision – a new concept car which marks the start of something bigger for the automotive arm of one of the most famous design houses in the world.
Automobili Pininfarina intends to create a future new range of ultra-luxe electric cars, with the Pura Vision’s aim being to show off a range of design cues the team want to carry across – no matter what shape those future models morph into.
‘The briefing of this concept was to define the new design philosophy that will allow us to evolve our brand into different segments,’ Automobili Pininfarina CEO Paolo Dellachà tells CAR. ‘Not only the hypercar segment like Battista, but into other potential ones we would like to bring the magic of Pininfarina to expand our ability.’
It’s certainly a bold looking thing…
And that’s exactly the point of the new ‘Pura’ design philosophy. The aim is to keep the design busy-ness seen so much in the modern era to a minimum and lean heavily on a few key but elaborate details. ‘We design cars for customers who own everything, so it’s rather difficult to wow them’ Davide Loris Amantea, Automobili Pininfarina’s chief design officer, tells us.
‘A challenge for us was to showcase the Pura philosophy, which is so solid that maybe we can make an interpretation of the most brutal segment currently out there – the SUV,’ he adds, ‘but we don’t want to call this concept car an SUV – it’s a different animal.’
The biggest design concept is the ‘face’ the Pura Vision car features, with extremely shallow lighting features blended above an aggressive, aerodynamically-focused lower valance. The lights themselves use nanofibre optics, where each fibre is only around 1mm thick which allows a deeper and more customisable light signature.
The other key exterior detail – beyond the huge wheels and black-coloured glasshouse – is the enormous rear haunches. ‘We call it vertical muscle,’ says Amantea, ‘and those broad shoulders give the Pura Vision a stance that is sporty and has very provocative proportions. Proportions like this are unseen in this kind of car. You want to be the king of the road, and this is something the concept features.’
And, because it’s a concept, the Pura Vision features an elaborate door mechanism that includes gullwing-like side windows mixed together with rear-hinged rear doors, allowing maximum access into a clean interior brimming with recycled materials.
‘The interior team and exterior team were working closely together – there was no separation in order to create coherence,’ says Amantea.
The front seats are suspended via the centre console, designed to look as if they’re floating, and there’s very little technology on display beyond the large steering wheel and central portrait screen. Upholstery that is 70 per cent wool and 30 per cent recycled fish nets is used, and scraps of aluminium (gathered from machining processes) are used in the treadplates.
Automobili Pininfarina aims for tech to be visible only when it’s needed, relying on head-up displays for some of the car’s information, as well as providing the ability to retract the central screen entirely.
Any technical details you can share?
Not many, but the Pura Vision concept does actually propel itself. There aren’t really any technical details available, however.
Dellachà says that not everything the brand intends to create will use the Battista platform, however: ‘if we were to build something in a completely different segment [to Battista], like a 2+2 or a utility vehicle, it will definitely need a different platform. All of the packaging will have to be different in order for us to reorganise the interior space.’
So, what new Pininfarina model will we likely see first?
If you’re suspecting an SUV, it’s certainly an odds-on favourite. Given the aim is to provide something for a very exclusive clientele that owns many super and hypercars, the team say what their clients are looking for is something as luxurious, but with more space.
‘We sketched all kinds of segments,’ says Amantea as he shows us an array of sketches during a presentation; ‘if you want to prove your vision is correct, that means every car you’re going to design has to work and be applicable to the brand.’ Among the design sketches CAR was privy to, the Pura Vision’s most pertinent design details have been applied to an SUV-like shape, as well as a low-slung four-door model that could rival the Taycan or upcoming Lotus Type 133, as well as sportier shapes.
‘But to summarise, I think what most of our clients convey to us is that they see themselves in a four-seater,’ adds Dellachà; ‘for them to have something that is so beautiful and emotional with a four-seat layout is something that they miss from any other car maker.’