The Shock of the Nouveau

Rimac Nevera and Lotus Evija too obvious? Pininfarina Battista too conventional? Then sink a couple of million into one of these

- Georg Kacher

MY TURN. TENSION MOUNTS, in the car and in the pit-lane. Next to me is the racer and test driver, Paolo Souza. 'Bear in mind ESP is not operational,' is his disconcerting opening gambit. “The throttle mapping and brake regeneration algorithm are also still work in progress.

Never mind. We are ready to go, in the only running version of the Hispano Suiza Carmen. It is the first new car to bear the Hispano Suiza name since 1946. The plan is to build 19 of the regular Carmen, an electric two-seat grand tourer making 1,020 hp and priced at €1.5 million (Rs 12.90 crore) plus taxes and four of the more track friendly Carmen Boulogne, which gains 95 hp and costs an extra €150,000 (Rs 1.29 crore).

I am about to take to the Barcelona GP track in the Boulogne. And it just started drizzling.

Paolo is unruffled, despite the fact that two of the three journalists who went before me managed to spin the Carmen. As I ease onto the track, the car feels fine quiet, stable, responsive, and quick, but certainly not 1,000-hp-plus quick. We still have easily enough torque on tap to chase the Tesla Model Space car into one wriggling manoeuvre after another. At the end of the long start-finish straight, though, the speedo reads 215 km/h or 50 km/h down on a petrol sports car I drove here in May.

Hispano Suiza Carmen

Price: €1.65 million (Rs 14.19 crore) + taxes

Powertrain: 80-kWh battery, four e-motors, rear-wheel drive

Performance: 1,020 hp, 1,150 Nm, 2.6 seconds 0-100 km/h, 290 km/h

Weight: 1,690 kg