Pininfarina has started production of Mitsubishi’s Colt CZC just over a year after the two companies made their agreement on design, development and production of the model.

The new Colt CZC is being assembled in Bairo, near Turin, Italy. It is the result of a pan-European effort, as all components that are not built by Pininfarina will be shipped to Italy for final assembly.

Mitsubishi’s NedCar plant in Born, Holland, will supply body components, but also production engineering knowledge. This will give NedCar something to be happy about after Mitsubishi pulled production of the Smart Forfour at its plant last week.

A total of 65% of the Colt CZC parts will be carried over from the original Colt.

Mitsubishi Motors Europe sold 72,305 NedCar-built Colts in 2005, aiming at 80/85,000 units in 2006, the first year where all variants will be available in the market.