Two completely different companies are bringing a supercar with the name “Hispano Suiza” to the Geneva auto show—but which one is the real one?
A few weeks back we reported on a few Hispano Suiza teaser shots from what we thought was the only new brand with that name.
That company’s being run by the great-grandson of the original owner, Miguel Suque Mateu.
The vehicle it plans to show off in Geneva is an all-electric supercar inspired by Hispano-Suiza’s 1938 Dubonnet Xenia; and named Carmen, after Mateu’s great-granddaughter.
According to Top Gear, the second Hispano Suiza is building a car called the Maguari GS1 GTC (pictured, top) and powered by a 1,085-hp twin-turbo V10 from a Lamborghini. It will cost 2.2-million Euros ($3.3 million) and will hit 100 km/h in just 2.8 seconds onto a top speed of 380 km/h.
That brand is from Switzerland – “Hispano Suiza” translates into “Spanish-Swiss” – and while that’s a historically neutral country, there is nothing neutral about founder Erwin Leo Himmel’s take on this debacle.
He’s the Austrian car designer behind the Maguari, and he says he is “quite surprised that they are advertising the car under our brand name.”
“I got the European rights for ‘Hispano Suiza’ back in 2010. Meanwhile, I also own the rights in our global key markets,” says Himmel.
“Their current company ‘Hispano Suiza Cars’ was only founded on November 26th, 2018. [Their leader] has no interest and no knowledge in the automotive industry and his Grup Paralada business (owner of casinos and party halls in Catalonia) is what drives him.”
It looks like neither company is going to back down—all there is to do is wait and see what happens at Geneva.