The performance arm of Fiat, Abarth is planning to expand its lineup and more than double the number of its dealers on a global scale.
Abarth is set to increase its annual global sales to about 10,000 cars this year, despite the fact that they only offer sporty versions of the Fiat 500.
Paolo Gagliardo, Abarth’s boss said the company will add a new model to its lineup without saying which one. Fabrizio Simoni, Abarth’s head of Marketing said to AutoNews that the brand is going to offer their own versions of the 500X compact SUV and of course the 124 Spider, declining to say when the new models will debut.
Abarth’s plan for growth includes the expansion of their dealer network from 350 sales points today to 750 in the future, according to Gagliardo.
A mock-up model of the Abarth 124 Spider was shown to a select few, with a source saying that Fiat wants to use a high-performance version of the 124 Spider as a base for a rally car in order to return to the World Rally Championship.
The same source said that the Abarth version of the 124 Spider will use a tuned version of the existing turbocharged 1.4-litre petrol engine, currently used by the normal model which will debut in Europe the following May.
Note: Opening image is a speculative render from X-Tomi
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