Nother CarGuy

Chinese-backed Karma Automotive has revealed the new Revero GT, a heavily revised version of the hybrid saloon that was originally known as the Fisker Karma, as well as the new Pininfarina GT coupe and the SC1 Vision Concept. The new Karma Revero GT features a redesigned bodywork and a new “world-class” hybrid electric powetrain that uses a BMW-sourced TwinPower Turbo three-cylinder petrol engine as a range-extender. The combined output is claimed to be 528hp (535PS) while the battery pack comes with a capacity of 28kWh. Karma says that the new Revero GT offers 80 miles (128km) of pure electric range and a 0-62mph (100km/h) in 4.5 seconds. Karma Automotive will launch the new Revero GT in Europe and the Middle East by next year, with China to follow in 2021, according to the company’s CEO Dr. Lance Zhou. Created in collaboration with Pininfarina, the new GT Coupe is essentially a 2020 Revero GT with a brand new two-door bodywork on top, retaining the same hybrid electr...

Karma Automotive has dropped the first teaser image of a new concept car that will debut at Auto Shanghai 2019 (April 16-24). The as-of-yet-unnamed study is the first concrete result of Karma’s collaboration with Italian design and engineering house Pininfarina announced in January. No other details were released but Karma did show a teaser photo of the mystery concept. It shows the front end of the car that boasts a sleek DRL signature, illuminated logo, and a sculpted bumper consisting of a middle segment that separates two sections featuring eight vertical slats each. The study appears to be low and wide, so we can speculate on it being a four-door coupé, just like the Revero. When the deal with Pininfarina was announced in January, Karma said it would help it “accelerate future technology and product development through Pininfarina’s turn-key automotive experience.” “Karma is united in spirit with Pininfarina through our shared commitment to stunning design, and we ar...

Automobili Pininfarina has announced the name of the electric hypercar that will have its world premiere at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. Italy’s most powerful and fastest car will be called Battista, as an homage to company founder Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina. The timing of the market launch in late 2020 has been arranged to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Carrozzeria Pininfarina, the famous design house which now starts a new chapter as an automaker. “This is genuinely a dream come true. My grandfather always had the vision that one day there would be a stand-alone range of Pininfarina-branded cars. This hypercar will boast world-beating performance, technological innovation and of course elegant styling. For me, we simply had to call it Battista,” said Pininfarina SpA chairman, Paolo Pininfarina. Previously known by the PF0 codename, the Pininfarina Battista will be “the fastest and most powerful car ever designed and produced in Italy,” according to Automobili Pininfarina....

VinFast, Vietnam’s first car company, has lifted the veils off its two Pininfarina-designed cars set to debut at this years’ Paris Auto Show. The sedan and SUV models have been designed for the company’s home market based on a selection made by the Vietnamese people. VinFast gave the people of Vietnam the opportunity to influence the styling direction at the very beginning of the design process one year ago. More than 62,000 people chose from 20 design sketches submitted by four major Italian car design houses. While ItalDesign’s sketches initially won the contest, Pininfarina was appointed to further develop and complete the designs. Labeled as premium products, both cars feature very similar front ends sporting a chrome V emblem at the center of the grille, a horizontal chrome splint that merges with the LED DRLs, sleek headlights, and an asymmetric chrome element. Highlights of the sedan’s design include the generous wheelbase, long bonnet, and horizontal body...

Following an exclusive unveiling of the Pininfarina PF0 Concept to prospective clients at Pebble Beach, the Italian design house has released a single image of the vehicle’s rear. As previous teasers indicated, the PF0 hypercar adopts a unique shape and certainly looks bold enough to compete with the current and future crop of hypercars. Undeniably the most intriguing aspect of the PF0’s rear are the taillights. They can be seen affixed to what look like floating wings which stretch back from the rear wheel arches right to the very edge of the car’s decklid. Not only does this create a unique look but it also probably serves an important aerodynamic function to minimize drag. Elsewhere, the image appears to show off the hypercar’s lack of traditional wing mirrors, a bold diffuser, spacious glass canopy, and potentially, some active aero flaps just forward of the taillights. In a statement, Pininfarina said it received overwhelmingly positive responses to the vehicle’s design...

Pininfarina has published three teaser images of the PF0 hypercar’s interior ahead of an exclusive premiere to prospective clients at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The Italian marque has also confirmed that the car will celebrate its official unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show in 2019. The design of the vehicle is being led by Automobili Pininfarina design director Luca Borgogno and is in its final stages. Pininfarina says design inspiration has been taken from other cars created by the design house, including the Cisitalia, Modulo, and Sintesi. “Our objective with the exterior of PF0 is to design timeless beauty in every aspect, and the interior is equally important. Pininfarina’s design values of elegance and simplicity present us with a fantastic opportunity to stand out from the styling of most current sports and hypercars,” Borgogno said. “Our guests in Pebble Beach have a huge affinity for Italian sports cars. I am certain they will value our commitment to ens...

A brand-new Vietnamese car company called VinFast aims to launch in the market with an SUV and a sedan – both developed by Pininfarina’s design and engineering teams. Both models will start sales in Vietnam in September 2019 but before that, VinFast will bring them to the 2018 Paris Auto Show in October for their world debut. “We have the resources, scalability and commitment to become a significant new player in the global automotive industry. We are immensely proud to be the first volume automotive manufacturer in Vietnam, and the first to participate in a major international motor show”, said VinFast’s CEO, James DeLuca. Besides their ambitions to offer the two as-yet-unnamed vehicles in Vietnam, the start-up’s plans include worldwide sales. It may be too early to talk about the exact markets in question, but we could be looking at Europe, where they would be exported straight from a brand new factory located in northern Vietnam. VinFast won’t limit their offerings to ...

Famous Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina, which is now part of Mahindra and Mahindra, is keeping gearheads glued to their screens by releasing new images with the upcoming PF0. Expected to debut in concept form at the Monterey Car Week next month in California, the hypercar will have unique styling, with soft curves and angular lines all around. The official sketches released by Pininfarina recently reveal LED light strips on both ends, an aggressively styled front apron, a uniquely shaped front hood and a sporty profile. It’s unknown whether it will offer seating for two or arrive in a 2+2 configuration with two cramped rear seats, although what we do know is that the Pininfarina PF0 will be all about performance, featuring a state-of-the-art-electric powertrain. Some of the numbers expected from it are 0-62mph (0-100km/h) in less than two seconds, plus under 12 seconds for the 0-186mph (0-300km/h) sprint. And that’s not all, because the hypercar will allegedly reach s...

Pininfarina will premiere a concept version of its PF0 electric hypercar at next month’s Monterey Car Week in California. Previewed by a single image in April, the PF0 will look to join the hypercar elite and Pininfarina has already made some big claims. For starters, the hypercar will accelerate to 62 mph (100 km/h) in less than two seconds and hit 186 mph (300 km/h) in under 12 seconds. What’s more, the PF0 will reach roughly 250 mph (400 km/h) and be capable of travelling for 310 miles (500 km) on a charge. The design of the Pininfarina hypercar is the work of Luca Borgogno, an accomplished designer who previously headed up Lamborghini’s Turin design studio. On initial impressions, it seems as though the Pininfarina PF0 will share some design similarities with previous vehicles from the design house. For example, the front end is somewhat reminiscent of the Ferrari Sergio. Elsewhere, we can can see prominent flying buttress stretching from the sides to the rear of the perfo...

Pininfarina promised two new debuts for the Beijing Motor Show this year, and true to their word, they didn’t let us down. Following earlier teasers, the Italian design house showcased two more concepts for the Hybrid Kinetic Group. One takes the form of a sedan, the other, a crossover. And they both look pretty damn slick. Rendered in a deep shade of gold, the H500 sedan is envisioned as a smaller counterpart to the earlier H600 unveiled at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. Its cabin features four individual seats and a proliferation of touchscreens for all, plus a bright white upholstery. The K350 crossover on the other hand is designed to slot in below the five-seat K550 and seven-seat K750 showcased in Shanghai last year. With white bodywork and a contrasting black roof, it features a black interior with orange highlights and free-floating seats. Both concepts are motivated (in theory at least) by range-extended electric powertrains. Or in other words, plug-in hybr...

Pininfarina is getting into the electric vehicle market – not just by designing cars for other marques, but by launching its own. And here we have our first look at what to expect. Called the PF0, the forthcoming new hyper-EV promises to deliver otherworldly performance. Following recent reports, Automobili Pininfarina now confirms that the vehicle will be able to reach 62 miles per hour (100 km/h) from a standstill in under two seconds. It’ll hit 186 mph (300 km/h) in less than twelve. It’ll top out at 250 mph (~400 km/h), and travel for a distance of 310 miles (500 km) between charges. That’ll not only show Tesla a thing or two, but Bugatti and Koenigsegg, too. To design the new hypercar, Pininfarina has recruited one Luca Borgogno. Not to be confused (should you be so inclined) with the volleyball player of the same name, Borgogno headed up Lamborghini’s design studio in Turin before movinga year and a half ago back to Pininfarina (where he started his career). Now he’...

Pininfarina and Mahindra have announced plans to launch a new electric vehicle company called Automobili Pininfarina. Set to build on the legendary Pininfarina name, the brand will be based in Europe and “manufacture high technology, extreme performance, luxury electric vehicles for the most discerning global customers.” The companies were light on specifics but it sounds like Pininfarina will be responsible for the styling while Mahindra while be providing the powertrain technology. The first model will be launched in 2020 and it will be an electric hypercar that builds on Mahindra’s experience in Formula E. Little is known about the model but previous reports have suggested the car will be called the PF-Zero. Initial reports also claimed Rimac would be involved in the project but the announcement didn’t include any mention of the automaker. While little is known about Automobili Pininfarina, Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra promised the company will “develop a rare col...

Pininfarina is preparing two new concepts for the Hybrid Kinetic Group to reveal at the Beijing Auto Show later this month. The first takes the form of a four-door sedan, previewed just days ago. The second announced today will be an SUV. And this is our first glimpse at it. Called the K350, it takes the form of a four-seat crossover. It will pack a plug-in hybrid powertrain in what the design house terms a “robust and athletic body.” And judging from the renderings and nomenclature, it’ll be rather compact in size. That means it won’t have an excess of space inside. As sleek as the cabin environment looks from the second teaser rendering below, it appears to be pretty short on rear-seat legroom. But such are the parameters of vehicles this small. More than that, we couldn’t really tell you at this early stage. But the sedan and crossover concepts won’t be the first that the Italian design house will have done for the Hong Kong-based startup. Pininfarina and HKG first tea...

Pininfarina has been keeping pretty busy with work from the Hybrid Kinetic Group. The two have collaborated on a series of concept cars over the past year or so. And they’ll reveal two more at the Beijing Auto Show next month. Previewed here is the first of the two. Called the H500, the concept takes the form of a range-extended electric sedan. The plug-in hybrid employ HKG’s powertrain, draped in a form penned by the famous Italian design studio. More than that we don’t know at this point. But it’s set to be joined by another concept to appear alongside it at the Peking exposition that’s otherwise known as Auto China. We’ll have to hold on to see what form that second concept will take. But our money, for the record, is on a crossover. The Hong Kong-based automotive startup first teamed up with the Italian studio on the H600 sedan unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show last year. They followed up with the five-seat K550 and seven-seat K750 crossovers at the 2017 Shanghai Moto...

Pininfarina’s latest show car, and the fourth of its kind designed for Hybrid Kinetic Group, has touched down in Geneva, for its world premiere. It’s called HK GT, sports a very elegant styling, with a long, sculpted bonnet, a slightly curved line that flows to the rear, and chromed slats, in the grille, said to “open like petals to frame the high-tech headlights”. The new Pininfarina HK GT Concept may remind us of the Mercedes-AMG GT family, but unlike the German sports car (not counting in the new AMG GT4), it has seating for four. Ingress and egress are facilitated by the gullwing doors, and once inside, you will notice a very clean and flowing layout. There’s a gigantic screen that slides out of the dashboard, serving as the infotainment system, another one on the tunnel that allows passengers to access different functions, and a digital screen behind the steering wheel. Four permanent magnet motors, with two-speed transmission, and a microturbine range exten...

Studios like Pininfarina typically design cars (among other things) for other automakers. Like the HK GT concept, for example, revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. But once in a while, they do something on their own. Pininfarina captured our imaginations at the show two years ago when it revealed the H2 Speed concept. And now it’s putting it into production. The hydrogen-powered track car is designed (and will be built) by the famous Italian carrozzeria, with help on the powertrain side from its racing partner GreenGT. The Franco-Swiss outfit has been experimenting with clean propulsion systems for about a decade now, and its expertise will undoubtedly mesh well with Pininfarina’s track record of designing and even producing world-class supercars. The carbon-fiber chassis underpinning the H2 Speed is derived from a Le Mans prototype, modified with a longer wheelbase and narrower track. It also has a higher-mounted cockpit to let the amateur millionaires (that are bound to buy...