A high-performance environmentally friendly car that doesn’t rely on petrol or diesel is generally regarded as automotive Utopia. From the established manufacturers to the small studios, the race to reach that Utopia is well and truly on – and whoever wins will earn themselves a place among the big players. Everyone wants a piece of the cake and legendary Italian design house Pininfarina is no exception, unveiling its Sintesi concept car at Geneva.

“The Sintesi is not only a testament to the creativeness of our design team,” declared Andrea Pininfarina, Chairman and CEO of the Group, “but it reiterates our historical ability to anticipate stylistic and technological solutions that we will see in the cars of the future.”

The Sintesi is powered by the Quadrivium Fuel Cells system, featuring a hydrogen fuel cell and electric motor driving each wheel – and hence distributing weight around the vehicle. This can take the Sintesi (in Sport mode) to 100km/h (62mph) in 7.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 248km/h.

Pininfarina has extended its innovation to the whole four-door sports car concept. Instead of viewing the body as a covering for the engine and associated technologies, Pininfarina has adopted a policy it calls ‘Liquid Packaging’, shaping the technology around the passengers, improving weight distribution and lowering the centre of gravity.

In addition to design and fuel innovations, the Sintesi’s use of mobile communications also looks to the future. It features Reicom’s Clancast radio technology, a dynamic communications network described as ‘living connective tissue’, which transports information about traffic, security, audio, video and internet between the car, the road and cities.

Text: Classic Driver
Photos: Pinninfarina