Bruce Wayne is without question the most swingin’ bachelor in Gotham City, a cerebral guy whose family firm, Wayne Enterprises, develops advanced civilian and military technology, some of which informs the suite of late-night crime-fighting tools employed by Bruce’s deadly alter-ego, Batman, the Dark Knight. First introduced in the 1930s, Bruce Wayne was the original superhero powered by advanced technology.
Warner Bros. owns the Batman franchise of DC Comics. Thanks to a century of movie-making, Warner Bros. also owns iconic characters and storylines that lend themselves to branded luxury goods.
Warner Bros. Discover Global Consumer Products has partnered with Automobili Pininfarina and Relevance International to develop a batch of four one-of-one battery-electric hypercars that reflect the bon vivant lifestyle of Bruce Wayne and the coolly menacing Dark Knight esthetic of Batman.
At Quail Lodge this coming week, Automobili Pininfarina will offer one-of-one Batman and Bruce Wayne versions of both its foundational hypercar, the Battista, and its second car, the B95. The “B” stands for Barchetta, which is pronounced BAR-ketta, Italian for little boat, a nickname applied to small, pure Italian roadsters that have no provision for a convertible top. Channel your Inner Bruce Wayne, throw down a few million and you will be the one-of-one owner.
Both Battista and B95 employ variations of the 4-motor battery-electric powertrain the boys of Cambiano developed in partnership with everyone’s favorite heir to Nikola Tesla’s Electric Throne, Mate Rimac.
Battista and B95’s four electric motors—one for each wheel, with two up front, two in the rear—generate an astounding 1726 lb. ft. of instant-on torque, which equates to roughly 1900 electric horsepower.
Automobili Pininfarina CEO and engineering boss Paolo Dellachà finessed the black box controls to put all that power to the ground in a useful and controllable fashion, and guided development of the carbon-fiber backbone and also suspension architecture.
Both vehicles can leap from standstill to 60 mph in under two seconds in the Furioso setting, something I experienced back in 2022 at the launch of Battista on the canyons above Malibu. From that experience, I know that a taller man like me can find comfort in both cars, and that the chassis dynamics are stiff but well sorted, in great part because CEO Paolo Dellachà spent years honing his craft with Ferrari and Maserati.
Battista and Barchetta will appeal to those whose minds are open to a world beyond pistons and turbochargers, to those who embrace electric propulsion. Because its lithium-ion battery pack is sandwiched between upper and lower cooling systems, keeping the cells always within optimal temperature range, Battista and Barchetta do not require a dozen radiators with active aero vents and complex cooling channels, as many mega-horsepower piston-driven hypercars do.
Battista reclaimed the ancient beauty of Pininfarina’s moving sculptures chiseled for so many car companies, including more than a half-century as the preferred body designer for Ferrari. Battista, and the Barchetta, possess the flowing, graceful curves that defined Pininfarina sports cars in the 1950s, ‘60’ and ‘70s, curves that remind of so many of the female athletes we have seen at the Paris Olympics these past few weeks. Those first few decades following World War Two are considered by many the Golden Era of the sports car. But we currently live in a new, tech-infused Golden Era of performance cars and exotic sports cars, a new Belle Epoque of automotive design and engineering.
It remains my opinion that any collector of supercars needs at least one electric hypercar, if only as a measuring stick of all acceleration. Because simply put, no piston-engine hypercar can hope to match the effortlessly violent acceleration of a battery-electric hypercar.
For me, the Battista and Barchetta are both so beautiful, so classically elegant, that they will prove a good return on investment in decades to come. Dave Amantea, who leads Automobili Pininfarina design, has gifted both vehicles with exterior shapes that are best captured with that very old 1960s term: sexy. Amantea has rejected and abandoned the Brutalist forms that are sadly so commonplace these days. Battista and Barchetta have the feminine curves an Italian sports car should possess. From the Golden Age of cinema, think of those Italian bombshells: Claudia Cardinale, Sofia Loren, and Gina Lollabrigida. Yeah, those kinda curves.
Battista and Barchetta are perfectly suited to both Bruce Wayne and his glamorous approach to romancing ballerinas and supermodels, as well as the Dark Knight’s deadly late-night action.