Spanish automotive company Hispano Suiza will debut its new production car ‘Carmen’ at Geneva Motor Show on March 5, 2019. The once-proud car company continued primarily as an aerospace firm following World War II until rumblings at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show with the rumored showing of a new model car. Although this production never materialized, the iconic Spanish luxury car brand will be making its global debut in Geneva in hopes of having customers getting behind the wheel in 2020.
Designed, developed, and manufactured in Barcelona, the fully-electric Carmen (€1.5m, just over $1.7m) is a ‘hyper luxe’ grand touring car, which combines hypercar performance with exquisite luxury. With key attention to detail and craftsmanship, along with reviving the brand’s heritage of elegance and luxury, Carmen has a top speed of 250 km/h and a range that will surpass 400km. Capable of 0-100 km/h in under three seconds, thanks to its carbon fiber construction, it features a 750-kW electric motor, translating to just over 1,000hp.
Inspired by the unique style and elegance of Mr. Suqué Mateu’s (current President of Hispano Suiza and great-grandson of the brand’s founder) mother, Carmen Mateu, Carmen has a focus on thrilling performance and an easy-to-drive character. Its striking is influenced by mold-breaking Hispano Suiza cars of the early 20th century blending a mix of aggressive sportiness and timeless elegance into a modern-day hyper luxe car.
Each car will be hand-built in Barcelona by QEV, and the Carmen honors the 1938 Hispanos Suiza Dubonnet Xenia in a retrospective aerodynamic teardrop profile modernized for the 2020s. With a large chrome-framed, deep-set trapezoidal grille with the italicized heritage ‘Hispano Suiza’ script and the marque’s new badge at the center, its headlamps mirror an aggressive frown of a feline. Carmen’s seats, battery housing, and monocoque chassis are all made of carbon fiber. At the same time, dramatic scissor doors rise and pivot in one smooth, elegant movement inviting driver and passenger to enter. With an interior that combines the finest leather and Alcantara along with hand-trimmed and hand-sewn in-house upholstery, each Carmen will feature a custom perfumed interior, specified and developed with the buyer to ensure the car is aligned perfectly with their preferences. Its dash features a traditional style using real wood veneers and machined high-grade aluminum with a 10.1-inch touchscreen display and a separate instrument panel screen.
Carmen rivals the performance of other top luxury car brands as the drag coefficient is Cd 0.325, lower than the Porsche 918 Spyder (0.34), Koenigsegg Agera R (0.37) and Ferrari F12 (0.33).
Committing to only 19 cars to be produced from late 2019 until 2021, prospective customers can now register their interest to purchase one of the exclusive Carmen models, ahead of its official customer launch date in June 2020.
