Pininfarina
Pininfarina S.p.A., or Carozzeria Pininfarina for short, is a coach maker and car design company based in Cambiano, Italy. It was founded as the Societa Anomina Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by car builder and designer Battista Farina. Since then, Pininfarina has been hired by a variety of car makers, such as Maserati, Ferrari, Cadillac, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, and Lancia. The company has designed passenger trams in France, a high-speed train in Holland, and trolley lines in the United States. Pininfarina was operated by Andrea Pininfarina until he died in 2008, when younger brother Paolo Pininfarina took over.
Today, the Pininfarina Group has more than three thousand employees, working in offices throughout Europe, China and Morocco. The company is registered, trading publicly on the Borsa Italiana, or Milan Stock Exchange. The company has cooperated with Nash Motors, resulting in high production of the Pininfarina designs, and allowing the company a way into the tough US car market. Back in 1952, Pininfarina came to the United States for the release of the Nash Statesman and Ambassador car lines. These two lines had some Pininfarina design elements, but were mostly designed by the Nash styling staff because the original “Italian” design wasn’t to American tastes.
However, the sportscar body provided by Nash/Healey was assembled and designed in limited quantities at Pininfarina’s Turin plant. The Nash company took advantage of the Pininfarina connection, heavily advertising it in much the same way as Studebaker did with its links to Raymond Loewy. Nash’s marketing allowed Pininfarina to become famous in the US. In the 1980s, Pininfarina collaborated with Cadillac on the Allante, designing it and partially assembling it (the car bodies were put together and painted in Italy, before being shipped to Michigan for final assembly).
In 2003, Pininfarina Sverige AB was established in Uddevalla, Sweden as a joint venture between Pininfarina and Volvo, with 60% of the company being owned by Pininfarina, and the remainder owned by Volvo. The joint venture produced the C70 model, which was released in April 2006. The car shares a platform with the Volvo S40, and it was designed by John Kinsey as a coupe convertible with a retractable metal hardtop. This car replaces both the convertible and the cabriolet models that have been gone from Volvo’s lineup for years.