Tata may have grabbed the attention by showcasing the ultracheap Nano and Mahindra may have developed the rarest diesel electric hybrid. But to replicate the success of Honda’s and Toyota’s, Indain manufacturer have to gain knoweldge espescially in fields like styling. Certainly Indica’s and Bolero’s are superior and are very practical. But they doesn’t have the necessary wow factor to lure european customers. Designing in not just limited for creating stylish products, it can also bring a cost effective solution. Efficient design reduces the production cost significantly. Tata and Mahindra which have aspiration to become global players know this well. After chasing Jaguar’s and Land Rover’s they are looking design firms.

India’s largest car maker Tata Motors has announced its interest in picking up stake in Pininfarina one of the world’s finest design houses. Pininfarina an Italian car design firm founded in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista “Pinin” Farina has been instrumental  in building greatest machines like Volvo C70,Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and Maserati Gran Turismo. But as other companies in the sector, Pinifarina is also suffering from the latest trend among big car makers to develop models by themselves rather than seek outside help. Pininfarina has 145 mn euro debt plus operating losses on its books and is in urgent need of a cash infusion. This has led the company to offload stake to raise about $158mn. This raising capital will also be used for the planned electric car which pinifarina develops jointly with Vincent Bollore..

Design centre in Pune:

Pininfarina also plans to open a design centre in India to provide services to Tata Motors and other Indian and international vehicle makers. The pune centre will be held jointly by Pininfarina and Tata Motors.“This agreement (with Tata Motors) witnesses the great attention Pininfarina is dedicati wish to an emerging and highly developing market such as the Indian one,” Andrea Pininfarina, chairman and chief executive of Pininfarina, said. Pininfarina has already made inroads in the Indian market through the tie-up with ICML for the latter’s world car platform. To know more about Pinifarina visit www.pininfarina.it