As a standalone car brand, Pininfarina is only a couple of years old. As a coachbuilder, it’s nearly 100 years old. The former drew inspiration from the latter to design a one-off version of the electric Battista whose two-tone color scheme honors a one-off Lancia coupe from 1955.
There’s more than Italian heritage linking the Battista and the Lancia Florida: both models were designed by Pininfarina. Four examples of the Florida were built, including three sedans and one coupe, and all of them were based on the regular-production Aurelia, which was the first series-produced car equipped with a V6 engine. The coupe (shown below) still exists and is occasionally displayed at vintage-car shows.
Stately and elegant, the Florida looked nothing like the Aurelia it was based on. Its aerodynamic lines had a major influence on Lancia’s design language, it notably helped shape the Flaminia sedan released in 1957, yet it remains one of the company’s more obscure models.
Back to the present. Pininfarina named the one-off model Cinquantacinque, which means “fifty-five” in Italian. The lower part of the body is finished in Blu Savoia Gloss while the roof is painted in Bianco Sestriere Gloss; the only Florida coupe features the same two-tone look. Inside, there’s Mahagoni leather from Poltrona Frau’s Heritage collection and accents such as an inscription on the passenger-side door sill.
Pininfarina hasn’t made any mechanical changes to the Battista. Power comes from four electric motors that draw electricity from a 120-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack to develop 1,900 horsepower and 1,726 pound-feet of torque. Range checks in at about 295 miles.
The Pininfarina Battista Cinquantacinque will make its public debut in Tokyo, Japan. It’s not a customer-commissioned car; a spokesperson for the brand told Autoblog that the Cinquantacinque was built to showcase the various customization options that buyers have access to. Put another way, if you like it, you can probably buy it — if you have deep enough pockets. The standard Battista starts at $2.2 million.