Yahoo Autos Pininfarina Is Relaunching as a High-End EV Brand
By the time India's Mahindra Group took over in 2015, Pininfarina had shut down its Special Projects division, despite the fact that 2013's Sergio concept had made it into limited production over at Ferrari. Their mass-production car-building buisness in Italy had ended thee years earlier with Alfa Romeo, while in Sweden, the design house managed to keep the flame alive until 2013, through a joined venture set up to build the Volvo C70.
Two years and multiple masterful debt-restructuring moves later, Indian giant Mahindra came to the rescue, and Pininfarina has been very busy ever since. And while design and consulting remains a huge part of their wide portfolio, the arrival of Automobili Pininfarina means the famous name is back in the full-scale car production business as well.
To make sure we'll notice in two years' time, Pininfarina will start off big with a high-end electric hypercar. Codenamed PF-Zero, it could look like an evolution of Pininfarina's current H2 Speed Concept, shown at the top of this page, but what's certain is that it will use Formula E technology borrowed from Mahindra's FIA entree. What's more, Pininfarina is also in talks with electric carmaker Rimac, makers of the 1914 horsepower C-Two.
As Rimac told Road & Track:
"We are good friends and have had some interesting discussions in recent months around powertrain development and other mobility solutions relevant to sustainable and future automotive opportunities.
Nothing has been signed or agreed, but discussions have been positive and will no doubt continue after the launch of Automobili Pininfarina."
Following the hypercar in 2020, Pininfarina is planning to produce three SUVs, with the largest aimed right at high-end performance utility vehicles like the Lamborghini Urus. Using the same modular underpinnings, Pininfarina will also come up with an alternative to Porsche's SUV line.
What Geely is doing with Polestar, it seems Mahindra will do through Pininfarina. It's anybody's game now.
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