The always-animated Giugiaro, responsible for the design of mythical gas-powered vehicles like the Aston Martin DB4 GT, DeLorean DMC-12, and Ferrari 250 GT SWB Bertone, said that EVs provide one huge benefit to designers. "The big difference with electric vehicles is that there is more space for the passengers," he told Engadget. "You can see that in the prototype, and in other electric cars."

The Sibylla, though, is really meant to highlight the infrastructure part of EV ownership. "The grid is the real elephant in the room when it comes to electric cars," Envision designer Jianfeng Yan said. "Let's say 10 percent of the cars in France become electrified, that's three million cars. If all of them charged at the same time, with a fast charge, that would create a load of 300 gigawatts. Historically, the peak load in France is 100 gigawatts. So there's a huge infrastructure challenge."

The answer is to make sure that cars only charge when power is cheap and plentiful, and that they can kick energy back to the grid when it's overwhelmed. So beneath the Sybilla's lovely exterior is technology that lets the the Sybilla connect to systems in your home, office and in public to only charge at the optimal times -- and give back power when needed.