Auto Design

“Technology is not a constraint but a further incentive to designer’s creativity.”

“Before the end of 2009, we will be offering the Pininfarina electric car.”

Andrea Pininfarina, 2008.

In this interview, published in Spring 2008, Andrea Pininfarina how the company is changing:  from the futuristic concept car Sintesi, to the challenge of the  electric car, from the development of the brand to the expansion of services for the world automotive industry…

Three years after Birdcage 75th and four after Nido, the time has come for Sintesi, Pininfarina’s new concept car. The stage for the debut is as always the Geneva Motor Show. What has changed in recent years in the way a concept car is realized?

For a car designer realizing a concept car is always a challenge, demanding and intriguing at the same time. Pininfarina has realized dozens of concept cars over the years (from Sigma Grand Prix to the Ethos trilogy, before arriving at the more recent Nido and Birdcage 75th), but the excitement never changes. The greatest emotion of all is not, as might be thought, the moment when the car is unveiled but when, in the course of the years, we find a styling or technological innovation that we introduced in one of our concept cars adopted in a production car. This is the most flattering possible recognition and it confirms that concept cars are, and always have been, an exercise requiring courage and vision, far-sightedness and passion.

Yet for Pininfarina there is no lack of challenges: designing Ferraris, Maseratis or cars for a variety of other customers is a difficult, demanding task.

It certainly is, but at the same time, especially for customers we have been dealing with for years, we work within a kind of family feeling which we know very well and which we have always interpreted with great discipline. On the other hand, in the case of a concept car, it is not just a question of dressing up a set of mechanicals with elegance and style, but of searching for the highest possible level of innovation, anticipating new solutions. This is the case of Sintesi, which represents a courageous exploration of the future of the car.

Sintesi is an evocative name. Are you referring to the styling history of the company?

Yes, but not only that. Just last year we carried out an analysis of the values inherent in our brand and these certainly include aesthetic values – the fluidity of forms, essentiality, elegance – associated with our design, but also values, equally important, of an ethical nature: innovation, global vision, an awareness of progress, attention to the human factor.

Is development of the brand one of Pininfarina’s strategic lines for the future?

Certainly. Our brand represents Italian car design and creativity and is known in many parts of the world. Over the years it has become natural – thanks to the activities of Pininfarina Extra – to associate our design and our brand with those of other companies in sectors different from that of the motor industry. It has become even more natural to decide finally to produce a Pininfarina branded car. The electric car that we will be making in cooperation with the Bolloré Group, will give a considerable boost to the development of our brand.

Does Sintesi preview any of the themes of the electric car?

I should point out right away that Sintesi project got going long before the agreement was signed with Bolloré, and we are not talking about a prototype of an electric car here. Sintesi is a concept car which combines sportiness and functionality. The electric car slots into this process and will certainly not be unaffected by some of the styling and technological ideas presented in Sintesi.

Has Sintesi also been fully designed, developed and constructed in Pininfarina plants?

Yes it has, and this has enabled us to employ our design, engineering and manufacturing competencies to the utmost, including those competencies gained from our experience with building standard production cars. In recent years, it has to be said, we have pushed through a thorough make-over of our company culture, including a far-reaching change in our management and the introduction of programmes aimed at achieving the highest possible level of quality in all our plants. Competencies that will be used to good effect in the electric car.

What will the Pininfarina of the future be like?

There will be no change in Pininfarina’s mission. We are and remain above all a full service provider to worldwide car manufacturers. We will continue to offer our design services, which remain our core business in Italy, and engineering expertise through our centres in Italy, Germany, France and Morocco. We have done it in Europe, we have been doing it for more than ten years in China, and we have begun to do it in India too. Meantime we continue to be active in contract vehicle manufacturing, as the products we make at the moment show. With the electric car we will be engaging directly with the market for the first time and we will be doing so secure in the knowledge that we are offering a Pininfarina branded car.

How would you describe your participation at the 2008 edition of the Geneva Motor Show?

Most definitely an occasion of great satisfaction for the presentation of Sintesi, which confirms the vitality of our design. And then there is our delight and pride at the induction of my father, our Honorary Chairman, into the European Automotive Hall of Fame, which arrives after the similar honour conferred on him last year in America, both events marking high points in the history of our company. Finally, I have become ever more aware of the growing competition on the world car market where, before the end of 2009, we will be offering the Pininfarina electric car.