Developing and revealing the Battista has apparently had little impact on the pace of design work at Pininafarina, as is evident by the upcoming reveal of a concept it has created for California-based Karma. The as yet unnamed model has been previewed in a shadowy rendering, which does little more than showing it’ll have a low-set roofline and sleek front-end. It does, at least, suggest the car will be something with a performance focus. And it’s probably not an SUV.
Karma’s upcoming new Revero, due to be introduced to Europe for the first time later this year, uses a petrol-electric powertrain, while the recently teased Karma Vision concept (pictured below) is said to be an all-electric preview of that car’s successor. The Pininfarina-designed concept is therefore highly likely to be a pure EV, plus, Karma said that Pininfarina was providing it with “turn-key automotive experience”, suggesting electric hardware from the Italian brand is part of the deal.
Could there be shared components with the new Battista, Pininfarina’s 1,900hp all-electric hypercar? It’s certainly a possibility, given the way electric cars often have modular powertrains. Although we doubt the Chinese-owned Karma would want to – or be allowed to – come close to Pininfarina’s headline power output. Perhaps there’ll be shared motors and batteries, but of lower power and in a different layout. At this stage, your guess is as good as ours.
Following this concept’s reveal, expect Karma and Pininfarina to pay attention to public feedback before moving towards development of a production version. Because while nothing’s official, deals like this aren’t often done just to create a one-off show car, are they? Word is a whole range of cars are planned...
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