Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne has finally confirmed what we’ve already known for some time—that Alfa Romeo’s brilliant Giorgio platform found in the Giulia and Stelvio will be used by fellow FCA brands Dodge, Jeep and Maserati.
Marchionne made the confirmation during a conference call with analysts on January 26, Automotive News (subscription required) reports.
The move, which was planned all along, is to help spread the cost of developing the platform and vehicles based on it, whose bill already totals more than $2.7 billion.
“The investment in Alfa Romeo and certainly the technical investment in the architecture was something that was designed to benefit more than Alfa,” Marchionne said. “I'm happy that we have finally found clarity of thought in the extension of these architectures well beyond Alfa.”
2017 Maserati GranTurismo
Other than Alfa Romeo itself, the brand with the most to gain from the platform will be Maserati which will use it for its entire range of next-generation models, referred to by Marchionne as the “whole Maserati development beyond 2018.” The next Maserati due is a redesigned GranTurismo.
He was less clear on plans for the other brands. At Dodge, Marchionne said the platform will be used for rear-wheel-drive vehicles, i.e. the next-generation Challenger and Charger.
And at Jeep, he said the platform would be used for large models. It’s previously been reported that FCA was investigating the use of the Giorgio platform for the next-generation Grand Cherokee. Meanwhile, Marchionne has separately confirmed that the new Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models will use a body-on-frame platform borrowed from the next-generation Ram pickup.
Noticeably absent in the call was mention of a next-generation Chrysler 300. Helping to explain this are comments made by Marchionne in early 2016 about the next Chrysler sedan possibly adopting the front-wheel-drive platform developed for the Chrysler Pacifica.
