Hispano Suiza makes electric comeback

By RELAXNEWS | 9 February 2019


BARCELONA: Spanish automotive brand Hispano Suiza is ready to make a major comeback at the March 7-17

Geneva International Motor Show, , 2019. Spanish investors are seeking to revive the famous brand by launching a fully electric supercar, with a production run of just 19 models.

It will be the first production vehicle - albeit highly limited in number - released under the Hispano Suiza brand in over 70 years. This supercar has been named Carmen, after the mother of Miguel Suqué Mateu, who currently presides over Hispano Suiza and is the great-grandson of the Damian Mateu, one of the company's co-founders.

The car, which will be presented in Geneva, is directly inspired by the H6C Dubonnet Xenia model, a futuristic vehicle built by Hispano Suiza just before World War II.

The vehicle will be fully electric - with no further details for the time being - and will use a powertrain from QEV Technologies, a firm that has previously worked alongside Formula E teams (the FIA championship for single-seat, electrically powered racing cars). As yet, the only official photo of the car shows its carbon fibre chassis.

Only 19 of the cars will be manufactured artisanally in Barcelona. Price and availability will be announced at the Geneva show.

Founded in 1904, Hispano Suiza made cars until the end of the 1940s before specialising in aeronautical equipment and integrating Snecma, now part of the Safran group.

Its automotive branch, which belongs to the brand's heirs, briefly resurfaced in the early 2000s - first with concept cars the K8 and HS21-GTS, then a supercar based on the Audi R8 - although with little success.

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