Car and Driver: Mahindra’s Pininfarina Purchase Won’t Change Ferrari Relationship

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Indian automaker Mahindra just made its long-predicted purchase of Pininfarina official. The Italian design house, famous for shaping every Ferrari product from the mid-1950s until the LaFerrari, has had a decade of financial troubles, and Mahindra’s purchase likely will spare it from financial ruin.

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But what does Mahindra want to do with Pininfarina? To find out, our friends at Road & Track spoke with Krishna Bala, VP and head of automotive and aerospace business at Tech Mahindra, the Indian automaker’s product development, engineering, and information-technology arm.

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Mahindra operates as one gigantic holding group with companies in 10 different sectors: aerospace and defense, automobiles, automotive aftermarket, farm equipment, financial services, hospitality, information technology, business partnerships, real estate, and motorcycles and scooters. Pininfarina has been acquired by a joint venture company comprised of Mahindra Group (the parent company), Mahindra & Mahindra (the automotive arm), and Tech Mahindra (the tech-services company that serves the auto industry).

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Battista “Pinin” Farina founded Pininfarina in 1930.

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Bala says the new partnership won’t affect Pininfarina’s longstanding agreements with other automakers. “The Ferrari relationship will continue,” Bala told R&T. “The Maserati relationship will continue, all of [Pininfarina's] relationships will continue as is.”

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Will the change force a re-location of Pininfarina? “No, it’ll continue to be where it is,” Bala said. “It is listed on the Milan stock exchange, and Mr. [Paolo] Pininfarina will continue as chairman. So everything remains the same, we will only look for more synergies between Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, and Pininfarina.”

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• Mahininfarina! India’s Mahindra Buys Italian Design House Pininfarina-
• Targalicious Ferrari Sergio Delivered to First Customer in Abu Dhabi-
• Sergio Pininfarina: 1926–2012-

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And what about the rumors of a Pininfarina-branded vehicle coming to the U.S. market? “We are working with all the top-tier automotive customers in North America,” Bala says of Tech Mahindra. “The relationship with Pininfarina is quite strong on the European side, not so much here [in the U.S.]. In that respect, you will see as we move forward more involvement of this offering, which is styling and design, here in the U.S.”

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When Bala was directly if we would see the Pininfarina badge on a future vehicle, he declined to answer.

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This story originally appeared at Road & Track.

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