Pininfarina ends car production

Pininfarina S.p.A. , the legendary design company from Cambiano, Italy said it will stop its auto production business. The company will continue to design and engineer new vehicles.

“Unfortunately we are having to stop our production activities, given the way the car market is. So we are focusing on design and engineering,” a Pininfarina spokesman told Reuters.

Pininfarina blames the poor economic climate for its decision, according to a Reuters report.

The company has already begun laying off the first few of the 127 employees that will be losing their jobs. It said the lay-offs would cost 2.9 million euros.

The announcement comes after the Italian company said on March that is selling its stake in a car production joint venture with Sweden’s Volvo Car Corporation. Volvo will buy out Pininfarina in 2013 and then close the factory where the C70 is build today.

The automaker said that the 600 people who work at Uddevalla will be offered a job in other Volvo plants, including the one in Gothenburg, where Volvo’s headquarters are located.

Pininfarina was was founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista “Pinin” Farina. Battista’s grandson Andrea Pininfarina died in 2008 at Turin in a motorcycle crash.