Confirming rumors that have been circulating for much of 2014, Alfa Romeo CEO Harald Wester told CAR that the Italian automaker’s new Spider will instead ride on its forthcoming “Giorgio” rear-wheel drive platform.
Mazda has a contract to build FCA’s variant of the roadster in its Hiroshima manufacturing facility. Abandoning those plans would be costly to FCA.
The good news is that it appears FCA still has a home for the Japanese roadster’s underpinnings. Rather than appearing under the company’s premium Alfa branding, however, the MX-5 platform will likely find its way underneath a more mainstream product.
“The Far East import will probably find a new home with Fiat-Abarth,” Wester said. Moving the new roadster under the Fiat brand banner allows FCA to keep its contract with Mazda whilst simultaneously keeping CEO Sergio Marchionne’s promise to only build Alfa Romeos in Italy.
Meanwhile, Mazda has already shown its 2016 MX-5, with production expected to begin next year.
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