M&M subsidiary Pininfarina to be a car brand soon

NEW DELHI: Pininfarina may turn out to be Mahindra & Mahindra’s most valuable acquisition, as the Italian design and engineering firm’s importance is growing within

NEW DELHI: Pininfarina may turn out to be Mahindra & Mahindra’s most valuable acquisition, as the Italian design and engineering firm’s importance is growing within the automaker.

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Pininfarina may become a car brand soon. “We will see if we can use it to have specific Pininfarina developed products, or co-brand some with M&M,” said Pawan Goenka, executive director of M& M. It might have utility vehicles, electric vehicles and two-wheelers. Pin in farina counts Fiat, Bentley and BMW as clients.

In electric vehicles, Goenka hasn’t achieved desired results, but hasn’t given up. “We have some products in the pipeline and with Pin in farina’ s help we may do some high-end electric vehicles,” he said. It’s not unfathomable that M&M would want to become a Tesla rival. Goenka declined to comment.

“The question is whether there is enough space for another highend electric vehicle maker. There have been many shut-downs,” said Anil Sharma, analyst at IHS.

Sharma, however, said that Pin in farina may help M& M play a global battle, but not before M&M builds better technology. M&M had tried to enter the US before, but had to abandon it.