Venturi pulls plug on car production, Voxan brand

An era has come to a close. Venturi Automobiles has officially ended vehicle production and will, instead, focus on its electric racing effort and setting speed records. While it could be argued it never really began – its highest volume seller was an electric conversion of the Citroen Berlingo – hope always seemed to spring eternal at the Monaco-based outfit that it would eventually become the battery-powered equivalent of Ferrari: a niche manufacturer with compelling, if pricey, product. Alas, it is not to be.

Monegasque businessman Gildo Pallanca Pastor bought the ailing firm, which had sold about 750 high performance vehicles since its 1984 inception, in 2000 and introduced the very sexy Fétish concept in 2002 at the Paris Motor Show. Production is said to have begun in 2005, but burdened with a $600,000 price tag, only ten or so were sold.

After that, Venturi introduced a number of challenging – some would argue, bizzare – concepts at various auto shows, none of which reached production. It did seem for a while that its high-riding America sports car/dune buggy concept might make it to market, but that also withered on the vine. More recently, the company revived the Voxan motorcycle brand, introducing the 200-horsepower Wattman in late 2013 at the Paris Motorcycle Show. It too, now, shall forever pine for the fjords.

Sadly, shortly after that, tragedy struck. Pastor suffered a series of strokes and was hospitalized. His Mother, while leaving his hospital after a visit in May of 2014, was a mortally wounded in an assassination attempt. Since then, we understand Pastor has moved to the United States, where he is serving as Consul General of Monaco at the request of Prince Albert II.

Though its production ambitions have been curtailed, Venturi will not leave the electric vehicle space altogether. It will continue to participate in the Formula E series, and also pursue speed records with the VBB-3 in collaboration with Ohio State. To mark this transition, we've shared below a number of galleries, featuring the various vehicles from the company that have shocked and awed us over the years.