Pininfarina Nido

The Pininfarina Nido is a small two-seater city car concept that Pininfarina introduced at the 2004 Paris Motor Show, built to rethink how safety is achieved in a very short vehicle. Nido is the Italian word for nest, a name that suits its single-box shape, which wraps the occupants in a protective shell. Instead of relying on mass, it combines a chassis with a deformable front section and a rigid safety cell, an occupant shell that works as a sled able to slide along a central runner, and two energy absorbers made of honeycomb sections of different density that join the two. The project grew from close work between Pininfarina design and engineering staff, later earned the ADI Compasso d'Oro of 2008 and was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A battery electric version, the Nido EV, followed in 2010.