ARES Design Reborn as ARES Atelier: Modena’s Bespoke Coachbuilder Opens a New Chapter

ARES is back. After a turbulent period marked by financial difficulties, restructuring and uncertainty over its future, the Modena-based bespoke car specialist formerly known as ARES Design has entered a new phase under the name ARES Atelier.

The relaunch marks more than a simple rebranding. It represents an attempt to rebuild the company on stronger industrial foundations, while preserving the same philosophy that made ARES one of the most talked-about independent coachbuilders of the modern era: highly personalised cars, developed around the vision of each individual client.

The new course is supported by Proma Group as majority shareholder, together with independent investor Boris Collardi. Operational management has been entrusted to Antonio Trotta, a mechanical engineer and manager with significant experience in the automotive sector, including more than a decade at Ferrari. His role will be crucial in transforming ARES from a highly creative atelier into a more structured, reliable and scalable manufacturer of ultra-exclusive cars.

For Carrozzieri-Italiani.com, this story is particularly important. On 20 October 2025, we published an in-depth report titled “What Happened to ARES Modena? Inside the Crisis and Comeback”, analysing the company’s difficult period, its halted projects, the judicial liquidation of the previous entity and the first signs of a possible restart through Ares Operations. At the time, the question was simple: could ARES survive? The latest announcement suggests that the answer is yes, although under a renewed identity and with a very different industrial approach.

ARES Atelier remains rooted in Modena, in the heart of Italy’s Motor Valley. This is not a minor detail. For a company built around craftsmanship, engineering and low-volume automotive production, Modena offers one of the most concentrated ecosystems of specialist suppliers, technicians and high-performance know-how in the world. The new company intends to use that environment not only as a romantic backdrop, but as the foundation for a more disciplined production strategy.

The aim is to reinforce ARES Atelier’s position in the world of bespoke luxury cars, where clients no longer seek only performance or rarity, but complete personalisation. In this segment, the automobile becomes an object of co-creation: part design statement, part engineering exercise, part personal manifesto. ARES wants to operate precisely in this space, combining tailor-made design, advanced engineering, Italian craftsmanship and direct collaboration with the client.

The company has already confirmed that several new product and industrial projects are under development. The focus is expected to be on exclusive models and supercars, with a stronger emphasis on production planning, quality control and long-term sustainability. This is perhaps the most important change compared with the first ARES Design era, when the company became famous for bold, spectacular projects but later suffered from the fragility typical of many small manufacturers working at the edge of ambition and complexity.

ARES Design’s legacy remains significant. The company built its reputation with cars such as the Panther ProgettoUno, (our carrozzieri-italiani.com car of the year 2019) a modern reinterpretation of the De Tomaso Pantera based on Lamborghini Huracán architecture, and the S1 Project, a dramatic carbon-bodied supercar derived from the Chevrolet Corvette C8. It also created highly individual commissions including the Bentley Mulsanne Coupé, reworked Land Rover Defender V8 models, coachbuilt Tesla conversions and the Wami Lalique Spyder. These projects placed ARES in the lineage of Italian coachbuilding, not as a traditional carrozzeria of the 1950s, but as a contemporary interpreter of the same idea: taking an existing mechanical base and transforming it into something personal, rare and visually distinctive.

The challenge now is credibility. In the ultra-luxury automotive world, imagination is not enough. Clients expect execution, delivery, aftersales support and absolute consistency. The relaunch under ARES Atelier appears designed to address exactly this point. The involvement of a stronger industrial shareholder, a more structured management team and a clearer operational plan suggests a move away from the image of a free-spending start-up and toward that of a disciplined bespoke manufacturer.

The company will also seek renewed international visibility through luxury and automotive events, beginning with the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco, one of the most important showcases for supercars, collectors and high-net-worth clients. For ARES Atelier, Monaco is not only a stage, but a statement: the brand wants to return to the global conversation around coachbuilt luxury.

Whether this new phase will be enough to restore the full confidence of clients and suppliers remains to be seen. But the signs are stronger than they were during the uncertain months of 2024 and 2025. The name has changed, the ownership structure has changed, and the industrial priorities appear clearer.

ARES Atelier now has the difficult task of proving that the dream of a modern Modenese coachbuilder can be rebuilt on solid ground. If it succeeds, the reborn ARES could become one of the most interesting examples of how Italian coachbuilding can survive in the 21st century: not by returning nostalgically to the past, but by applying the old spirit of the carrozzeria to a new market of ultra-personalised, ultra-exclusive automobiles.