What's the best electric vehicle for outdragging Verstappen?

If there are two things we all know about electric cars it’s that they’re terrible for range unless they can do 500 miles and be recharged in 90 seconds, and that they’re all really fast. But there’s fast and there’s fast, isn’t there?

Most EVs will give you that instant slug of torque that gets the front wheels scrabbling away – plenty enough to win the lights out and away we go dash from the traffic lights. But what if you want something a little more… impressive? Something, say, that’s even quicker than an actual F1 car. A good one even, not a McLaren. 

The Pininfarina name might be closely associated with stylish cars from the Sixties and that, but the firm branched out in recent decades – its got lots of high-speed experience now, making trains for Switzerland, Norway and Italy. What greater symbol of high-performance excellence than the 2006 Winter Olympics torch, eh? And not really to do with anything else here, but Pininfarina also had a hand in those Coke machines with the touchscreen that squirt noxious artificial tasting syrups in your drink. Amazing!

Perhaps we now have a greater understanding as to why the Mahindra-owned Italian outfit wanted to reassert its automotive dominance by producing a hypercar that set production speed records when it was homologated for going on sale in 2022. The Pininfarina Battista – named after the company founder – takes a mere 1.86secs to get from 0–62mph thanks to four e-motors producing almost 1,900bhp. But it also requires a mere 4.49secs to get from a standstill to 120mph, and its carbon ceramic brakes bring it to a halt from 62mph in a piffling 31 metres. 

The best way to put the car’s performance into context is to explain that the Battista is quicker than an F1 car. It takes around 2.5secs for a modern F1 car to reach 62mph, which isn’t that impressive truth be told. The aerodynamics are barely getting warmed up at that speed, it’s at much faster speeds the racing cars come into their own. The next 62mph arrives in less than two seconds as the F1 car begins to claw some of the Battista’s advantage back. 

Depending on the set-up the Battista and the F1 car are going to be squabbling all the way to v-max, the Battista topping out at 217mph, the F1 at upwards of 220mph if the wings have been suitably tweaked. 

The Pininfarina does carry more luggage than an F1 car though, making it much more practical than anything that’s just used on a Sunday afternoon. Of course, said bootspace would charitably be described as piffling, but if you’re rich enough to spend a cool £2m on an electric hypercar you can probably buy clothes on holiday. Or send your suitcase ahead of you in a Bentley. There’s plenty of room inside the Battista for what you need to be carrying around with you, and that’s the bragging rights next time you pull up alongside an F1 car at the traffic lights.

Best EV for outdragging an F1 car – Pininfarina Battista
Price: £1.9 million
Range: 296 miles
Engine: 1,877bhp e-motors
Battery: 120kWh
Top speed: 217mph
0–62mph: 1.86secs
Boot space: 48 litres