The Pininfarina Bluecar

The Pininfarina Bluecar

The last we heard of Pininfarina and its Bluecar electric vehicle was that the company was looking to start production but a lack of financial support meant the project was never able to pass the concept stage. That was almost two years ago, however.

Fast forward to today and we have news that Pininfarina has signed a deal to lease out a portion of its factory near Turin in Italy to a company called Cecomp, which plans to build a run of roughly 4,000 Bluecars. The cars aren’t to be sold to the public but rather used by Autolib, a French car-sharing company.

The deal is reportedly worth $19.3 million and it means that around 57 employees will get to keep their jobs at the Pininfarina factory.

The original Bluecar concept was powered by a lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery and was capable of a 155 mile range. It was developed together with another French firm, Bollore, which supplied the propulsion technology for its drivetrain.

[AutoWeek]