Anand Mahindra replies to man’s ‘auto rickshaws are faster’ quip on Mahindra-owned hypercar

The Mahindra-owned Pininfarina Battista has broken the record for the world’s fastest street-legal vehicle, but even this hypercar’s got nothing on good old auto rickshaws when it comes to speeding through Indian traffic. Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra agrees that the Battista would still be ways behind auto rickshaws in India’s infamous traffic.

Luxury EV manufacturer Automobili Pininfarina, which was acquired by the Mahindra Group in 2015, recently announced that its debut battery-powered hypercar is the world’s fastest accelerating electric car and the fastest accelerating road-legal vehicle.

Even with such feathers in its cap, the Pininfarina Battista would lag behind auto rickshaws in traffic. This, at least, was the opinion of one Twitter user who commented on Anand Mahindra’s post promoting the hypercar – and the industrialist agreed with him.

“Pininfarina’s All-Electric Battista Hypercar Just Became the World’s Fastest Street-Legal Vehicle. Which is more than an ‘interesting’ factoid for Indians. Because the entire project was conceived by Mahindra Rise of which Automobili Pininfarina is a part!” wrote Mahindra on Twitter.

“Still Auto Rickshaws will be more faster in Indian Traffic [sic],” one Twitter user wrote in response to his post.

Anand Mahindra agreed. “Can’t argue with that!” he wrote with a smiley emoji.

Can’t argue with that! https://t.co/5MCZCK4qnc

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 30, 2022

Meanwhile, the Battista hyper GT is the first in a range of purely electric, zero-emissions, luxury cars solely branded Pininfarina, with top speed of 270 mph and range of 310 mile on single charge. According to the company’s press release, the Battista hit 0 - 100 km/h in just 1.79 seconds, becoming the world’s fastest accelerating electric vehicle.