45°27′47″N9°10′21″E / 45.4631558°N 9.172412°E /45.4631558; 9.172412
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| Industry | Automotive |
|---|---|
| Founded | Turin,Italy (during 1912; 114 years ago (1912)) |
| Founder | Giovanni Bertone |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Cars |
| Services | Coachbuilder of vehicles |
| Owner | Jean-Franck Ricci Mauro Ricci |
| Website | bertone |
Gruppo Bertone, commonly known asBertone, was an Italianindustrial design company which specialized incar styling,coachbuilding andmanufacturing. It was also acar manufacturing company.
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The company was based inGrugliasco,northern Italy. Gruppo Bertone was founded as Carrozzeria Bertone in 1912 byGiovanni Bertone. DesignerNuccio Bertone took charge of the company afterWorld War II and the company was divided into two units:Carrozzeria for manufacturing andStile Bertone for styling. Until its bankruptcy in 2014, the company was headed by the widow of Nuccio Bertone, Lilli Bertone. At the time of bankruptcy, it had around 100 direct employees. In 2014, most employees lost their jobs and were not absorbed by following acquisitions. Cars from the company museum went to other museums, likeAutomotoclub Storico Italiano andVolandia.
After its bankruptcy, the Bertone name was acquired by anarchitect and retained by some of its former employees, who continued as aMilan-based small external design office, Bertone Design, more focused on industrial design and architecture. Bertone Design was sold to the group AKKA Technologies in the second quarter of 2016, which already had automotive design activities through Mercedes-Benz Technologies. The AKKA Technologies group subsequently sold the Bertone brand in 2020 to Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, the new owners. In 2022, Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci revived the Bertone brand. The first in a series of limited edition vehicles, theGB110, was presented in December 2022, then unveiled in June 2024.
Giovanni Bertone started a carriage manufacturing business inTurin, Italy, at the age of 28. Along with three workers, he builthorse-drawn vehicles. In 1914, Bertone's second son,Giuseppe, nicknamed "Nuccio", was born. The outbreak of theFirst World War forced Giovanni Bertone to close his company. In 1920, a new plant was opened near theMonginevro 119 in Turin. Twenty people were on the payroll. One year later, a contract on atorpedo-styled body based on the SPA 23Schassis was signed by the company.[1] Then, theFIAT "501 Sport Siluro Corsa" was designed.
During the 1920s, Giovanni Bertone began doing bodywork on the Fast, Chiribiri, Aurea, SCAT, and Diatto chassis.Vincenzo Lancia nicknamed him "Bertunot"; he commissioned Bertone to create cars for the "limited series". Giovanni Bertone produced torpedo and saloon bodies forFIAT andLancia and forItala,Diatto, andSPA. Alongside sports models like the 1928 Ansaldo 6BS, Giovanni Bertone also designed cars like theFiat 505 limousine and theItala 51S, both in 1924. He later designed the Lancia Lambda VIII Series in 1928. In 1932, Giovanni designed theLancia Artena, which was produced until 1936. In 1933, Nuccio Bertone officially began working in his father's company. The company moved to Corso Peschiera 225. Gruppo Bertone now had fifty members of staff. In 1934, Bertone created the Fiat 527S Ardita 2500.[2]
With the outbreak of theSecond World War, Bertone reacted to the crisis by turning to manufacturing military vehicles. The company created vehicles such as the Bertone ambulance on a Lancia Artena base. The chassisFiat 2800 cabriolet was manufactured; it was built on commission for race driver and motoring journalistGiovanni Lurani Cernuschi. Nuccio Bertone also created cars like theLancia Aprilia Cabriolet, the Fiat 1100 Stanguellini racing car, and theBerlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica (BAT) concept cars.
In 1956, they produced theAbarth 750 Record; it was built on a Fiat 600 chassis and tested on thehigh-speed track atMonza. Abarth 750 Record sets ten world records, including doing 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) at an average of 156.36 km/h and covering 10,125.26 km in 72 hours. In 1957, the company expanded to start the production of theNSU Sport Prinz. Construction work began inGrugliasco for a new plant that became operative in 1959 with a workforce of 550. At the end of the 1950s, Bertone created theGiulietta Sprint Speciale, theAston Martin DB2/4, and theMaserati 3500 GT.[2]
Giorgetto Giugiaro came up with five variations of five GT models: theAlfa Romeo 2600 Sprint, in coupé and cabriolet versions; twoFerrari 250 GTs, one named 'Wax' after the commissioning client; and the others for his personal use, theAston Martin DB4 GT 'Jet' and theMaserati 5000 GT. At the same time, two new industrial partnerships were worked on with theSimca 1000 Coupé and theBMW 3200 CS limited series. TheASA 1000 GT, better known as the "Ferrarina", or "little Ferrari" (as the project originated withEnzo Ferrari), was a commercial failure upon its release.[3] TheIso Rivolta GT 300, theIso Rivolta GT 340, and theIso Grifo were also created in the 1960s. Giorgetto Giugiaro designed a prototype cabriolet of the latter and a racing version known as the A3C. The Grifo years were also the years of theChevrolet Testudo, driven personally by Nuccio Bertone to theGeneva Motor Show in 1963. The following year, they created theAlfa Romeo Canguro, followed in 1965 by theAlfa Romeo Giulia GT.
In 1965, Bertone launched theFiat 850 Spider. The commercial success of this model led Nuccio Bertone to increase the company's production capacity to 120 units per day. Between 1965 and 1972, nearly 140,000 were produced, the great majority of which were sold in the United States. With the Fiat 850, the company increased its production volumes, from 13,000 units produced in 1966 to nearly 30,000 in 1968.[2]
At the end of the 1960s, they formed a partnership withFerruccio Lamborghini. The first vehicle to come out of this was theLamborghini Miura. The Miura was followed by theMarzal in 1967 and theEspada in 1968. In the same period, two other coupés appeared: theAlfa Romeo Montreal and theFiat Dino Coupé, both out in 1967. At theParis Motor Show of 1968, Bertone presented theCarabo concept car, based on an Alfa 33 chassis. By 1970, Bertone had a workforce of 1,500 staff, and the Grugliasco factory covered an area of 267,000 square metres (2,870,000 sq ft). The partnership with Lamborghini led to the development of theLamborghini Espada. The design was inspired by theJaguar Pirana. After his initial success with the Espada, he went on to design theLamborghini Jarama and theLamborghini Urraco.
In 1972, Giovanni Bertone died. In that year, as a tribute to the company's founder, theMaserati Khamsin and theFiat X1/9 were released. Based on theFiat 128 chassis but with a mid-rear-engine layout, the X1/9 was in production from 1972 to 1988, with 160,000 units manufactured. The company also began working forVolvo on the264 TE. TheVolvo 262C was presented at the1977 Geneva Motor Show. From the start of the 1980s, theFiat Ritmo Cabrio and the Fiat X1/9 were produced and sold directly under the Bertone brand. In 1982,Marcello Gandini turned out theCitroën BX. A new commercial agreement drawn up withGeneral Motors Europe in 1986 saw the production of theKadett Cabrio handed over to Bertone. In 1993, theOpel Astra Cabrio and theFiat Punto Cabrio began production. Next year, Bertone presented the Zero Emission Record (ZER); Gruppo Bertone was also awarded theISO 9001 quality certification.[2]
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By 2009, a worsening financial situation caused Bertone to sell its Grugliasco plant, along with its manufacturing activities, to FIAT.[4] Bertone underwent a major restructuring process. By then, the Bertone workforce had dropped to roughly 300 people, mainly engineers and designers. The financial situation continued, prompting Bertone to sell off some of its concept cars in 2011.[4][5][6] After having ceased trading because of financial difficulties, Bertone, on 18 March 2014,[5] confirmed that it would be declared bankrupt if a suitable buyer was not found by the end of April.[4]
In May 2013, the license rights to the brand were granted by Bertone Cento to Bertone Design.[7] They also formed a partnership withCitroën, but since the 2013 acquisition of the name, a car prototype or series was never made.[8]
In June 2016, the Bertone brand was acquired for more than€2.6 million by AKKA Technologies, an engineering company. The rights to use the brand, however, were shared with Bertone Design which does not have the authorization to use it in the automotive field.[9] Starting from November 2018, AKKA Technologies sold the license to use the Bertone brand in the electric automotive sector to Flymove Holding Limited UK, which in May 2019 proceeded with the definitive purchase of the brand for all applications and sectors.[10] They relaunched Bertone through the presentation of new models of electric cars designed by Carlos Arroyo Turon (former Bertone Designer) and which use the battery swap system.
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The AKKA Technologies group subsequently sold the Bertone brand to Ideactive, a company owned by Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci.[11] In 2022, the two Ricci brothers revived the Bertone brand. The first in a series of limited edition vehicles, the GB110, was launched in December 2022.[12][13][14] In June 2024, the Bertone GB110 was publicly unveiled atTop Marques Monaco.[15]
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