State of the artisan

Italy's famous coachbuilders aren't worried about new technology and changing tastes. Quite the opposite, in fact, discovers STEPHEN DOBIE

- STEPHEN DOBIE

"It could be the revival of coachbuilding." Andrea Zagato, CEO of the company bearing his surname, founded in 1919 by his grandfather, is confident.

Confident that his specialist industry is fit and ready to not only survive the new automotive era but thrive in it: "The art of coachbuilding is 500 years old, while automotive is around 150. We've already survived all possible technological shifts. I joined the company in the middle of the crisis of the early '90s, when other coachbuilders were lost. We survived all of this.

So why not a change of technology?" While the romance of automotive coachbuilding was perhaps strongest in its early decades, it stands to win over new audiences a century later, due to two diverging strands: the move to EVs with vastly shared platforms (just look at Ford and Volkswagen buddying up) and the nostalgic response of restomods and their ilk.

Whether on fully digitised or wantonly analogue bases, the need for individual designs and finely crafted bodies may be more crucial than ever.

"We are case designers," continues Zagato, "so we concentrate on what you see, what you touch. Whatever technology you provide us beneath, it's not a big change for us. There are several converging trends in the automotive industry, and one is the growing demand for exclusivity. There's also a standardisation of the components, even in internal combustion cars.