Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Pininfarina Sintesi concept.

Pininfarina has been in poor financial health for the last few years. The coachbuilding and design house's P&L sheet has been coated in red ink, with a 114.9 million euro loss last year and debt that's grown to 185.4 million euro from 129.9 million euro in 2006. Something had to be done, so Pininfarina announced to its shareholders today that a 100 million euro capital increase is necessary to keep the company's financial troubles at bay. When that infusion takes place, the Pininfarina family will officially be out of its 55-percent controlling stake in the firm.

If all goes according to plan, Pininfarina should be back in the black next year and operating at a seven-percent profit by 2010. Those goals are dependent on the success of a joint venture between Pininfarina and Bollore to produce an electric car that will go on sale in Europe, Japan and the U.S. in 2010.


[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

Being an independent design house is a tough business these days. You've got to diversify by designing things other than cars like desks. You also have to take on the odd job of developing one-off supercars for wealthy gearheads. And you also have to invest your money wisely. The Turin-based design house Pininfarina has announced that it will be taking some of its money and investing it in a joint-venture with French battery manufacturer Bolloré to produce electric cars. The €150 million project will be owned 50-50 by the two companies and draw on Pininfarina's design and manufacturing abilities and Bollore's advanced lithium-ion battery technology. While we have no idea what the car will look like, chances are pretty good it will be stunning in the Italian tradition of car design. We also know it will have four seats and a range of 250 kilometers or 155 miles of city driving. Bolloré's special batteries can be charged fully from a home outlet in 5 hours, or a five-minute charge will offer a little over 15 miles of range. The unnamed car will reportedly be sold in Europe, the U.S. and Japan beginning in 2010 with an annual production run of 15,000 per year. Yeah, we think it's a pretty ambitious plan, too.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]