Pininfarina just showcased its first take on the new Alfa Romeo concept car that the company will be showcasing in the coming Geneva Motor Show. The concept serves as a tribute to Pininfarina’s 80th year and will be part of Alfa’s centennial celebrations. (Yup, Alfa’s that old.)

Anyway, by the looks of it, the car’s a two a two-seat convertible, pretty much inspired by the Alfa spiders that have been designed by Pininfarina.

Another concept will be on the stage and that one will be based on the stunningly beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

Alfa says that the concepts are just purely for show probably since it’s now reported that Fiat is moving closer to merge their Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Abarth brands.

Then again, it’s Pininafarina and Alfa’s birthday. They should be able to build concepts for show if they want to.

Italian car firm Pininfarina might be in trouble but at least some of its projects are very well on track particularly its co-developed EV with French capitalist Vincent Bollore.

Ballore and Pininfari have been collaborating on EV development. Pininfarina already has the Bluecar which packs Bollore-supplied batteries. Pininfarina chief Silvio Pietro Angori told Reuters that it already has received more than 6,000 for the Bluecar which is set to go on sale by 2011.

“The joint venture is to develop and produce the Bluecar, then each of us has their own strategy. Bollore is probably interested in supplying his battery to the world and we to design electric cars also for other makers,” Angori said.

The Pininfarina EV is a 4-seater 4-door full EV capable of travelling 153 miles in between charges and has a top speed of 80 mph.

Oh one bad news after another. One of the foremost automotive design going back to 1930, the Italian car design company and coachbuilder Pininfarina has had a long and illustrious history, with a clientele of big-name automakers that include Ferrari, Maserati, and Cadillac. By the end of January, the company’s design house will not be majority-owned by the Pininfarina family anymore, thanks to accumulated debts amounting to over a billion dollars.

According to sources, the Pininfarina family is set to give up 50.6% of the company’s shares by the end of January. With the company accumulating some $1.2 billion in debts, the ill-timed death of Andrea Pininfarina some months ago, and the backlash of the global financial crisis, the move to sell shares has become inevitable.

Several names have already been mentioned as potential takers for the majority stake. The list includes Vincent Bollore, a French tycoon who had worked previously on an electric car jointly developed with Pininfarina, and Ratan Tata, owner of Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover. Tata, however, is already embattled by the loss of revenue due to the recession, making a bid from that angle a bit farfetched.

Source: GoAuto

Seems like Pininfarina is toughing it out despite the loss of their leader. They are up and at ‘em, though you have to ask whether they’ve tamed a bit. They’re bringing their own plug-in electric vehicle concept at the Paris Motor Show next month.

And this car isn’t one of those crazy designs that would put the Tesla Roadster and Lightning GT designs to shame like the Sintesis fuel-cell concept that they showcased in Geneva early this year. The plug-in EV concept will be the late-stage concept version of the Blue Car which is slated to be released as a new brand. It’s expected to hit the market in 2010.

The EV will be powered by lithium metal polymer batteries that will give the car a range of 124 miles. A 5 minute charge will give the car enough charge to travel up to 15 miles. Pininfarina have been working with Italian battery specialists, Bollore, on this one.

Source: Automotive News (subscription required)

Sad news to the motoring world. The chairman and CEO of Pininfarina, Andrea Pininfarina, 51, died from a motorcycle accident near the company HQ in Cambiano, Italy just near Turin. And of all ironies, Pininfarina was scooting to work in his Vespa when a car hit him.

As a car design company, Pininfarina has been part of many of the efforts by big automakers such as Ferrari, Maserati, Peugeot, Jaguar and Volvo. One of their latest works for those biggies is the Maserati GranTurismo.

Pininfarina is the grandson of company founder Battista Pinin Farina. The family controls 55% of the company stocks though the restructuring due to losses will be water down the stocks to 30%.

Can’t believe that a major figure in motoring just bit the dust driving a Vespa.

Source: Autocar

Get ready for an Italian attack next month in the Geneva Motor Show. Pininfarina will be showcasing its new Sintesi concept and you have to hand it to the Italians, they are still master designers. Yet another exquisite design with this one.

The bad thing is that we don’t have any decent press release that share a bit more technical detail regarding the car. As with my philosophy, I’m more of the performance kind of guy and some numbers on this machine definitely wouldn’t hurt. But I guess we’ll just have to ogle the car for now.

Design-wise, it’s nothing less than you’d expect from an Italian-designed car. The car itself is very sleek. How sleek is sleek? Just check that windshield. It’s almost horizontal. And it’s interesting to see that it creates that “internal framing” effect with the window-within-window design. It also has that Lambo scissor doors but with the front door swinging front and the rear door swinging rear. To contrast its sleek lines, the car features sharp and angular front vent and fascia.

Source: Winding Road