Over its 84-year history, Pininfarina has designed breath-taking cars for the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo. Starting in the 1980s, however, the Italian design firm began branching out into other types of products. Now, it's offering its own house-brand e-bike – the Pininfarina Fuoriserie.
According to the company, the Fuoriserie was inspired by the "tailor-made cars of the Thirties." In fact, the interlaced leather used on its handlebar grips and saddle (provided by Italian leather goods manufacturer The Bridge) emulates the leather interior of the Pininfarina-designed 1936 Lancia Astura Bocca.
Built for Pininfarina by Italian bicycle manufacturer 43 Milano, its frame is made of chrome-plated, hand-welded Dedacciai Zero DR chromoly steel tubing – the top tube additionally sports a walnut briar-root wood veneer. Other features include Campagnolo Veloce rim brakes, Nokon Carl Stahl articulated aluminum brake cable housings, a BLB Pista Vera crankset, aluminum rims from H Plus Son, and 700 x 28C Kevlar-reinforced Panaracer Rimbo tires.
It also has a hub dynamo-powered lighting system made by Germany's Supernova, which includes a 250-lumen LED headlight.
The rider's pedaling power is augmented by a 250-watt ZeHus Bike+ rear hub motor, allowing them to reach a maximum speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph). Its lithium-ion battery is charged both by the rider's pedaling on easy stretches and via regenerative braking, so it theoretically shouldn't need to be plugged in to recharge.
There's no word on the complete bike's weight, and we're still waiting to hear back from Pininfarina regarding its price. Given that only 30 Fuoriseries are being made, however, it's probably safe to assume that they won't be cheap.
Sources: Pininfarina, 43 Milano
Bzzzt. On flat ground, very little of the energy that goes into powering a bicycle is available for recovery; almost all of it is lost to air resistance.
On hills, you can recover more of it, but regenerative braking is not 100% efficient anyway.
And while you could in principle charge it with leg power, what's the point of an e-bike if you're doing that?
The studio also did the exterior design of the Coke freestyle soda vending machines.
I assume they also did design work on the Honda Metropolitan scooter since the name script is identical to that used on the 1954-1962 Nash Metropolitan cars.