Venturi Fetish

Venturi Fétish at a glance

From petrol concept to electric car

The Fétish began as a very different car. In March 2002 Venturi showed it at the Geneva Motor Show as a mid-engined petrol roadster, and it later appeared at the Paris show. Auto Bild described that concept in July 2002 with a 1,998 cc Renault four-cylinder from the Clio Williams, rated at 133 kW (180 PS), with a five-speed manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive.

That first car weighed only 850 kg. It was quoted at 6.0 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h, a top speed of 225 km/h and a target price of about €35,000. Venturi talked about a small series of around 500 cars a year. None of that went ahead. The company's new owner had other plans for the name.

The 225 km/h figure in the old 1cars text comes from this petrol concept, so it does not apply to the electric car that customers bought.

Venturi under Gildo Pallanca Pastor

Venturi had built French petrol sports cars since the 1980s, the last of them the Venturi Atlantique. After a bankruptcy, the Monegasque businessman Gildo Pallanca Pastor bought the company in 2000 and moved it to Monaco. He decided that every future Venturi would be electric. The full story of the company, from the first MVS coupé to its speed records, is told in our Venturi history.

Pastor's team kept the Fétish shape and replaced the petrol engine with a battery pack and an electric motor. The old 1cars text claimed that a Thai dealer group bought Venturi in 1997 and presented the Fétish in 2002. That is only half right: Nakarin Benz did own Venturi in the late 1990s, but the electric Fétish was the work of the Monaco owner.

Electric motor, battery and charging

The production Fétish uses one electric motor behind the cabin, driving the rear wheels through a single reduction gear. It revs to about 14,000 rpm and produces 180 kW (245 PS). All 220 Nm of torque is available from a standstill, which explains the strong launch.

Venturi lists the battery as a 45 kWh lithium-ion polymer pack of its own design; some later reports give 54 kWh. In 2005, evo magazine counted 100 battery modules of 72 cells each, mounted in a T shape under the central tunnel and cooled by air. The pack made up about a third of the car's weight.

Charging times depended on the supply. On an 80-amp connection a full charge took about 3.5 hours. On an ordinary 18-amp supply it took about 16.5 hours, which matches the 16 hours given in the old 1cars text. According to that text, the cells were made by Saft and were rated for more than 1,800 charge cycles.

Chassis, body and the Sacha Lakic design

Sacha Lakic, a Paris-based designer, drew the Fétish as a low, open two-seater with a long rear deck. The centre of the car is a carbon and aluminium honeycomb structure, with extruded aluminium sections at the front and rear. Venturi itself describes the body and monocoque as carbon fibre.

The front suspension uses wishbones and the rear a multi-link layout. The car runs on 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels with Michelin tyres. With a kerb weight of 1,099 kg according to evo, or 1,125 kg according to Venturi, it is light for an electric car with this much battery. By our calculation, that is about 6.1 kg per kW, close to a petrol sports car of the same period.

The petrol concept of 2002 measured 3,852 mm long, 1,793 mm wide and 1,140 mm high. The electric car kept the same basic shape, although Venturi did not publish separate dimensions for it in our sources.

Performance and what the testers found

Venturi claimed 4.5 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h for the 2004 car. Its own website now quotes 4 seconds. Top speed was limited to 171 km/h (106 mph) to protect the battery. That limit is the main weakness compared with petrol rivals of the time, which reached well over 250 km/h.

The official range was about 320 km (200 miles), and a figure of 340 km at a steady 90 km/h appears on Venturi's site. A 2004 report gave 217 miles, or about 350 km. The differences come from different test speeds, so treat 300 to 350 km as a realistic band for gentle driving.

Peter Dron drove a development car for evo in July 2005. He found the performance dramatic on dry roads and the chassis well balanced, with little body roll. On the negative side, the power steering felt uneven at low speed, the brakes felt rough on the prototype and the traction control cut in often on damp roads.

Price, buyers and production numbers

The Fétish was never meant for volume. When Venturi announced its appearance at the 2005 Los Angeles show, the price was given as 660,000 US dollars, about €490,000 at the end-2004 rate. In July 2005, evo quoted 370,000 pounds sterling, about €540,000 at the time.

Venturi planned 25 cars, built largely by hand. The first sales began in November 2004 in Japan, and the cars were offered through a few showrooms in cities such as Los Angeles, Tokyo and Monte Carlo. The old 1cars text gives a price of "at least €300,000" without a date, which is far below the launch figures above.

The 2010 update and the Fétish legacy

Venturi launched a revised Fétish in 2010, sold from 2011. Power rose to 220 kW (299 PS), and the claimed top speed went up to 200 km/h. The claimed sprint from 0 to 97 km/h took about 4 seconds. The old 1cars text mentions a liquid-cooled battery for the later cars and a motor rated at about 300 hp, which fits this update.

The Fétish proved that a tiny company could sell an electric sports car before the large brands did. Tesla delivered its first Roadster in 2008, four years after the first Fétish sale. Venturi later turned to electric speed-record cars, Formula E and vehicles for polar and lunar exploration. To see how the Fétish's power compares with today's electric cars, browse the electric cars section or check its ratio in the power-to-weight calculator.

Who should buy a Venturi Fétish

The Fétish suits collectors of early electric cars and of rare French and Monegasque marques. It has historical weight: it shows how electric performance cars were built before modern battery packs. As a driving car it is limited by its top speed, its range and the difficulty of finding parts and specialists.

A buyer should check the battery state first, ask for the car's service history with Venturi and confirm which version it is. Parts and expertise come only from the factory in Monaco. For other rare sports cars from small makers, see the supercars section, and the full list of models is on the Venturi brand page.