Pininfarina designs many things: Ferraris, scissors, Coke machines. Now, Mahindra & Mahindra wants the Italian house’s talents.
Bloomberg reports the Indian manufacturer — known in the United States for its tractors and its attempt to bring its trucks over to these shores — is close to closing the deal with Pininfarina after weeks of negotiation, though those negotiations still have a chance to collapse.
If successful, Mahindra could use Pininfarina to add more style to its and subsidiary Ssangyong’s offerings. The design house has worked with the manufacturer in the past, helping to develop its SUVs and designing its Halo electric sports car that was unveiled at last year’s Delhi Auto Show.
Mahindra’s bid for Pininfarina follows ChemChina’s bid for Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli in a series of foreign takeovers of Italian companies as Italy slowly emerges from its cycle of recessions.
So many thoughts!
-That concept up there is stunning. It just needs a big piece of glass over the front, and we’re good to go. I shall call it the Stratos II.
-Nobody in my family thought it made sense that the company who designs beautiful Italian exotics also did the Coke Freestyle machine at Wendy’s.
-I didn’t know any Ssangyong vehicles had been done by them. Hopefully not the Rhodius (http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/rodiusgreen.jpg), or the Musso Sports (http://cdn.tradebit.org/usr/palworld/pub/9002/164976670_SSANGYONGMUSSOSPORT.jpg).
-Where can I read something about the Mahindra effort in the US, this interests me.
Here’s the most recent story re: point four:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304655304579552181391629024
Gracias!
I’ll have to source it from not WSJ though, as I’m not a member.
http://www.genze.com/mahindra-expands-effort-to-counter-global-rivals-with-u-s-engineering/
I just used a Pininfarina-designed Lavazza espresso machine, coincidentally.
On the surface, this seems preferable to what’s happened to Bertone.
I’ve been using the same Lavazza LB2200 by Pininfarina for years. Great looking machine, but seems to take its maintenance, complexity and reliability ques from the Italians as well.
Maybe Toyota should be looking at acquiring the Pininfarina styling talent?
+1, and I’m sure you’ll agree – Lexus.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for showing a picture of a car that does not look like it was designed by an art school dropout. Of course, it’ll not be made, but it awakened car-lust genes that I long thought were gone.
Do a search on “Pininfarina Sergio 2015” and you will see the production version. It has a windscreen, but it’s still quite striking.
Will that front bumper pass pedestrian impact regs?
Sure, it will scrape the carcass off the ground after it has been run over by a 98 lb soccer mom driving a Yukon Denali.