Pininfarina is finally stepping out of the shadows. After years of serving as the go-to design house by some of the biggest automakers in the world, the Italian company has announced plans to become a full-fledged luxury electric car maker. The announcement was made by Pininfarina CEO Paulo Pininfarina, who hinted at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show that the company may finally have the capacity to bring to life founder Battista Farina’s dream of turning the company he started into a stand-alone car company.

This was a long time coming, though I think I speak for everyone else when I say that I’m happy that it has the potential to finally happen in my lifetime. Pininfarina is regarded alone as one of the world’s greatest and most revered design houses. Its impact on the auto industry is without doubt. A number of automakers, including Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Rolls-Royce, and Volvo, have all, at some points in their lives, tapped Pininfarina to help design some of its vehicles. Ferrari alone has benefited the most from its collaborations with Pininfarina. From iconic classics like the 275 GTB4 and the Enzo to modern Ferraris like the F12berlinetta and the custom-built Sergio supercar, Pininfarina was responsible for all of their designs.

But as revered as Pininfarina has been since it started all the back in 1930, it’s never been considered a stand-alone automaker. CEO Paulo Pininfarina hopes to change that, announcing that a luxury electric vehicle strategy is being created with the help of parent company Pininfarina. "My father’s dream was to build a car company, and his father’s dream was also to build a car company," he said. "Now I plan for that dream to come true."

Moving forward, it’s still unclear how Pininfarina plans to go about the business of becoming its own company. It already has the foundational pieces in place, including financial backing and battery technology from Mahindra. It has also hired former Audi strategy director Michael Perschke to lead a new Mahindra subsidiary — “Project Montana” — that will be tasked to develop high-end all-electric models under the Pininfarina brand.

We got a first look at what the company’s capable of at Geneva when Pininfarina showed off its HK GT Concept. It’s still unclear if the concept will be the first production electric car to wear a Pininfarina badge, but everybody seems to be off the same mind in describing it as a ridiculously awesome concept that definitely has a place in the electric car market. Hopefully, this plan comes to fruition sooner than later. It would be incredible to see a production version of the HK GT Concept hit the road. More importantly, everybody would be over the moon in seeing Pininfarina as a full-fledged automaker. Finally, at long last, we’ll be able to see what the legendary Italian design house is capable of as its own car company.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 Pininfarina HK GT.

Read more Pininfarina news.