Pininfarina could build its own shooting brake in the future
The realisation of the Automobili Pininfarina PF0 hypercar has been nearly 90 years in the making; a dream first envisioned by Pininfarina founder Battista all those years ago when he wanted his own road car.
In 2020, we’ll see the PF0. After that? Well, perhaps a sports activity vehicle or even a shooting brake. Yep, Pininfarina, one of the most storied design houses of our age, is planning on rolling out a range of fully electric, luxury cars under its new banner.
It might not be a “typical SUV”, company boss Michael Perschke told TopGear.com, more of a “crossover – let’s call it a SAV, a Sports Activity Vehicle,” he said. “Or a shooting brake.” A shooting brake with beauty as a fundamental. After all, Pininfarina SpA designed the Ferrari FF (above).
“80 or 90 per cent of the key buying reason [for a Pininfarina road car] will be aesthetics,” Perschke told us. “It will be beauty. A degree of purity and interior cleanliness. It will be organic designs, not wings, none of the frills that distract. It is a very pure design like the [Pininfarina classic] Cisitalia.
“If Tesla is for the premium sector, we’re for the luxury sector.” Oh yeah, the T word. Perschke noted how Automobili Pininfarina won’t do “pure limousines” like the Model S, for example, but is looking to explore its heritage and at “innovative and luxurious bodystyles”. Yeah, shooting brake does it for us.
It follows news that Automobili Pininfarina, backed by Mahinda & Mahindra, is investing €20 million to realise this dream of becoming a fully-fledged luxury carmaker with a legacy few can match.
Whichever segment Pininfarina chooses to go into after the PF0, the company will only do limited volumes. Indeed, only 150 PF0 hypercars are being planned, and despite there being no actual car just yet, interest has already accounted for significant portions of the build
And while the PF0 will cost in excess of £1.7m, Perschke told TopGear.com how the company isn’t planning on anything below €100k-€150k. “Our sweet spot will be between approximately €200k to €300k,” he said (RM1.06 million to RM1.6 million).
“We want to be the next generation of sustainable cars,” he added. “We want people looking at the car and saying, ‘wow, this is Pininfarina’.”
Let’s leave you with a little sweetener: when asked if Automobili Pininfarina would ever do a modern, EV version of one of its classics – sort of a ‘reimagined’ Pininfarina – Perschke noted how “if the case is strong and the demand is there, we will seriously study this option”.
