Pininfarina delays prototype showing of B0 electric car
By Darren Murph 
posted February 27th 2009 5:04AM
posted February 27th 2009 5:04AM
[Via Register Hardware]
posted February 27th 2009 5:04AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
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Pininfarina is an Italian design studio, not an electric car company. (http://www.pininfarina.com/)
Oh dear can Engadget not even manage to do a google search about the company they are writing about, Pininfarina are a very famous design company in Europe, they have designed alot of cars for other manufacturers, THEY DO NOT MAKE ELECTRIC CARS.
They are probably tryed to sell this design to a big car manufacturer.
Here's a direct quote from wikipedia since your "journalists" can't manage a small amount of research D'OH!
Pininfarina S.p.A. (BIT: PINF) (short for Carozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy, founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina (following the company, his family name became Pininfarina in 1961, as a result of combining his nickname and surname).
Over the years the company has been employed by many automobile manufacturers, notably Ferrari, Maserati, Cadillac, Nash, Peugeot, Jaguar, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, MG, Cisitalia, and Lancia. Since the 1980s Pininfarina has also provided industrial design and interior design consultation to corporate clients. Furthermore, over the years the company has designed trams (e.g. those in Lille), trains (e.g. Dutch domestic high-speed trains currently being built), and trolleys (e.g. the Boston Green Line). Until his death on August 7, 2008, Pininfarina was run by Battista's grandson Andrea Pininfarina; Paolo Pininfarina, Andrea's younger brother, was appointed new chairman and CEO on 12 August 2008[1]. The Pininfarina Group employs more than 3,000 people in subsidiary company offices throughout Europe, as well as in Morocco and China.
Wow 3000 workers for designing cars...
It's doesn't matter if Engadget gets the right or wrong you idiot. This is a blog and not a news site. These are bloggers and not journalist.
Like it or not, blogs are becoming a larger and larger part of the way the public consumes information. I'm sure many bloggers do indeed consider themselves journalists. Regardless, being 'just a blogger' isn't an excuse for disseminating blatantly incorrect information. That happens all too often these days, and it can have real negative consequences.
That said, I don't know how far off the mark this story is. The read link says "Pininfarina and Bollore formed the joint venture to build the electric car in December 2007" and it mentions that Pininfarina "has been cutting costs by halting production at its three plants in Italy on a rotating basis."
While it may be a stretch to classify them as 'an electric car company' they do appear to be a company attempting to produce an electric car.
They also design boats.
that picture must have been made in maya
B0 seriously does it smell like a locker room?
Must have no air conditioning to save the battery...since I'm not a "journalist" I can jump to an idiotic conclusion without burdening my conscience with worry of eroding the common intellect.
BO was the best they could come up with?
LOL @ the BO comments.
Yeah Tesla Motors is where it's at.... speaking of which haven't heard anything from them in a while. I thought they would have a sedan out by now?
They released a teaser of the Model S recently and are taking pre-orders (with a hefty $40,000 deposit).
Hop over to Autoblog:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/22/new-tesla-model-s-teaser-surfaces-our-friend-jason-orders-two/
These stories about electric car concepts are getting tedious. None of them address the fundamental problem with electric vehicles: THE COST OF THE BATTERY.
The Tesla uses about 8K 18650 Liion cells at a wholesale price of around $2.50. That's $20K just for the cells. Add packaging, cooling, and control electronics and you're looking at $25K just for the battery pack.
Until this issue is addressed, none of these electric cars will take off. Even with the pack cost baked in like the Tesla roadster, they may not be able to sell enough cars to stay afloat.
The real story happens when a company that actually produces cells announces a safe, cheap 500Ah LiIon cell.
.
.
It's beyond BO.