Pininfarina badge
Pininfarina S.p.A. (BIT: PINF) (short for Carozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.
Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers, including Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, Jaguar, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, Honda, Fiat, and Lancia. It also has designed trams in France, high-speed trains in Holland, and trolleys in the USA. Since the 1980s Pininfarina has been consulted on industrial and interior design.
Pininfarina was run by Battista's grandson Andrea Pininfarina until his death in 2008. Andrea's younger brother Paolo Pininfarina was appointed as successor.
The Pininfarina Group employs more than 3,000 people in subsidiary company offices throughout Europe, as well as in Morocco and China. Pininfarina is registered and publicly traded on the Borsa Italiana (Milan Stock Exchange).
History[]
The company was founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina.
Pininfarina was run by Battista's grandson Andrea Pininfarina until his death in 2008. Andrea's younger brother Paolo Pininfarina was then appointed as successor.
After World War II, a number of automotive manufacturers were interested in working with Pininfarina, whose highly innovative Cisitalia 202 design had attracted wide attention.
The subsequent cooperation with Nash Motors resulted in high-volume production of Pininfarina designs and provided a major entree into the United States market. In 1952, Pininfarina visited the U.S. for the unveiling of his design for the Nash Ambassador and Statesman lines, which, although they did carry some details of Pininfarina's design, were largely designed by Nash's then-new in-house styling staff when the original Farina-designed model proved unsuited to American tastes. The Nash-Healey sports car body was, however, completely designed and assembled in limited numbers from 1952 to 1954 at Pininfarina's Turin facilities. Nash heavily advertised its link to the famous Italian designer, much as Studebaker promoted its longtime association with Raymond Loewy. As a result of Nash's marketing efforts, Pininfarina became well known in the United States. Pininfarina also built the bodies for the limited-series Cadillac Eldorado Brougham for General Motors in 1959 and 1960, assembled them and sent them back to the U.S. There were 99 Broughams built in 1959 and 101 in 1960.
A similar arrangement was repeated in the late 1980s when Pininfarina designed (and partially assembled) the Cadillac Allanté. The car's bodies were assembled and painted in Italy before being flown to Detroit for final vehicle assembly.
Notable car designs[]
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Gallery[]
