Watch out Tesla, Pininfarina and Mahindra team up for EV glory

Wednesday, 11 July 2018

Italian design house Pininfarina and Indian manufacturer Mahindra have teamed up to form a new company to make high-end electric vehicles.

Indian manufacturer Mahindra and legendary Italian design house Pininfarina recently announced that they have teamed up to create an all-new car brand, Automobili Pininfarina.

While a seemingly unusual collaboration on the surface, the new company has a plan to 'sustainably develop and produce fully-electric, ultra-luxury cars at the pinnacle of design and desirability in their respective segments.'

Based in Munich, Germany, the company has announced the appointment of a new and experienced senior management team as it prepares to present its business and product plans to prospective retailer partners, clients and media in New York this week.

The company has released a design sketch of its first electric hypercar, codenamed PF0

Michael Perschke, Automobili Pininfarina CEO said: 'Automobili Pininfarina is a pioneering new business created to service the most discerning clients in the world. Our product portfolio will launch with an innovative, zero-emissions hypercar that represents the progression we aim to make at the pinnacle of the luxury and sports car market.'

**READ MORE

Mahindra was one of the ten original founding teams in the first season of Formula E.

* Pininfarina's sale to Mahindra predicted

* Mahindra's luxury SUV comes out of India to New Zealand

Formula 1 veteran Nick Heidfeld has been behind the wheel of the Mahindra Formula E car since 2015.

* Five cars that wouldn't exist without the Willys Jeep

* Ferrari designer Pininfarina dies**

Mahindra is better known in this part of the world for its rugged, but hardly attractive, commercial vehicles.

The company says it will offer a range of 'extremely luxurious and high-performance EV cars designed and built in a close partnership with Pininfarina SpA.'

The first car, codenamed PF0, was recently teased in a sketch and will be an ultra-low volume, ultra-luxurious fully-electric hypercar.

The company will also have an on-going technical collaboration with the multi-race winning Mahindra Racing Formula E team, that Perschke says will enable the company to deliver a range of vehicles offering 'design purity, emotional appeal and innovative EV technology' to customers worldwide in less than two years.

Mahindra Racing was one of the founding teams in the all-electric Formula E racing series, regularly scoring wins and finishing as high as third in last years championship after it developed its own electric drivetrain in 2015, the same year that the team also signed up former F1 driver Nick Heidfeld.

The new management team features some impressively experienced people from brands such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Jaguar Land Rover, Maserati, McLaren Automotive and Volvo.

'We have attracted some of the best automotive industry talent from all corners of the globe. Now this team is completely focussed on delivering ground-breaking, highly desirable vehicles through a business strategy which will see Automobili Pininfarina become the most sustainable luxury automotive business in the world', said Perschke.

But how exactly did a seemingly unlikely collaboration between an enormous Indian multinational company and a much-revered Italian design studio come about exactly?

Oh, that's easy: the Mahindra Group bought Pininfarina back in 2015, adding it to its increasing portfolio of automotive and electric brands that also includes SsangYong, Reva (an EV manufacturer), GenZe (an electric scooter manufacturer) and, of course, Mahindra & Mahindra the company the produces its own vehicles that we see here, such as the blatantly odd Pik-Up, the brilliant (but sadly not road legal in New Zealand) Thar that is a Jeep CJ built under license and the more modern and mainstream XUV500 SUV.