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Photo: Automobili Pininfarina
What’s next after building the world’s fastest-accelerating (and still road-legal) hypercar? For Italian automaker, Automobili Pininfarina, it seems to be designing a sports utility vehicle so sleek and effortlessly stylish that it wouldn’t look out of place in an Apple store.
Enter the Pura Vision concept, which was recently unveiled at Monterey Car Week alongside a special edition of their aforementioned Battista hypercar and another new, yet-to-be-announced production vehicle.
The direction is clearly style first, speed second, with the follow-up to the speedy Battista, given that the vehicle — styled by the brand as an “electric luxury utility vehicle”, or “e-LUV” — stretches luxuriously to about 5.2m end-to-end. This leaves ample room for two full-sized driver and passenger seats, along with a wine cooler and two smaller ones in the rear.
Photo: Automobili Pininfarina
Ingress is made via the vast portal afforded by a pair of forward-hinged front doors and rear-hinged back doors, with no B-pillar in between.
Though the Pura Vision sits on 23-inch whitewall tires, it remains remarkably low profile for an SUV, with a low hood leading up to a panoramic, glossy black glass roof that tops out at around 1.6m. The lower portion swings upwards, gullwing-style, across both door openings to make entry easier for taller passengers.
Photo: Automobili Pininfarina
A glossy silver finish — dubbed Bianco Sestriere Gloss — along with ultra-slim horizontal daytime lights and hidden headlights make for an absurdly pretty exterior.
Style remains at the forefront of the so-called e-LUV, with seats made to appear as if floating like the foil of a luxury sailing craft. This nautical inspiration can also be found in the central console, which is designed to resemble the horizontal spar that runs along the sail (known as a boom).
The dashboard, like a captain’s map, appears when summoned. Individual sound zones are created by speakers embedded into each headrest, which, along with the central console and upper seat backs, are made from 30 per cent wool and 70 per cent recycled polyester.
Photo: Automobili Pininfarina
According to the brand, this “innovative textile already meets Automobili Pininfarina durability standards for production vehicles”, which could mean we’ll be seeing more of the textile — or more of the car — in due time.
No details have been shared on the all-electric engine inside the Pura Vision, whether or not it ever comes into production.
However, given the 1877 horses put out by the Pininfarina, it’ll be sharing the stage with Monterey, which we can safely say will be a doozy.
