Pininfarina sets out to build its own all-electric car

Pininfarina may be best known as the design firm behind vehicles from Ferrari, Maserati and the like, but it's mainly popped up on our radar as of late due to its sporadic forays into hard drive design. We're now getting a little closer to the company's bread and butter, however, as the firm recently announced that it's planning to build it's own all-electric car. That'll apparently be done in collaboration with France's Bolloré Group, who'll supply the car's Lithium Metal Polymer battery technology while Pininfarina handles just about everything else (including the branding). Details on the car itself are still a bit light, obviously, but it'll apparently be a four-seater, and boast a range of 155 miles in city driving, with a top speed of 81 miles per hour. No word on what they expect the car to cost, unfortunately, but Pininfarina's hoping to have it available in Europe, Japan, and the United States by 2010.

[Via Core77]

[paragraph @ Jan 7th 2008 10:59AM]

It'll probably cost a fortune :\

As for the range, it's better than most all-electrics (like the volt concept) but it just dosn't replace gas.

[Specked @ Jan 7th 2008 1:17PM]

teslamotors.com - 220 miles per-charge

[Andrew @ Jan 7th 2008 11:02AM]

wow - only 2 years production time to build a car from scratch? Pininfarina isnt even a car company - its a design firm right? I think something got lost in translation because this project seems amazingly ambitious. Havent they been following Tesla? and thats only a roadster.

Well whatever comes out of it I'm sure it will be one great looking car.

[Madoc @ Jan 7th 2008 11:22AM]

I agree that it will cost a fortune as they follow Tesla's lead in an attempt to make electric cars "sexy" enough to sell.

But...don't knock the range on electrics. The earliest prototypes had a range of around 100 miles, which although it sounds like a little, 100 miles is more than 90% of U.S. drivers travel in one day. With new battery technology, these same cars can easily surpass the 300 mile mark (if not more).

[James @ Jan 7th 2008 11:27AM]

I have to say judging by their Maserati GT it will look amazing:

http://www.sybarites.org/2007/02/20/2007-maserati-granturismo/

[Tracy in Cary @ Jan 7th 2008 12:57PM]

Maybe it's just me but it sounds a little silly to quote an exact top speed and exact range when they don't even have a prototype yet. Without knowing the shape of it how can they know either the drag coefficient or how much space there is for batteries?

Seems like automotive vaporware to me.

[Don @ Jan 7th 2008 1:34PM]

I've never been disappointed by a Pininfarina design in the past, so that doesn't worry me at all. Alfa Romeo is returning in 2009, and Pininfarina has worked with them before. I'd LOVE to see a new Spider in electric.

My Audi's lease will be up in 2010, so yey- just in time, if not for them then hopefully for someone to make a decent electric. My daily commute is just 20 miles or so total, so electric is ideal for me.

[SimbaDogg @ Jan 7th 2008 2:45PM]

If i made a substantial amount of money i would def buy an electric car, even w/ a range of only 150. Living in socal is good for one thing, even though you HAVE to have a car to live here you really dont have to drive all that far to get a lot of stuff done. 150 round trip is more than enough for so cal