Fiat May Switch Mazda Roadster Away From Alfa Romeo

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has dropped a bombshell for Alfa Romeo fans this week, suggesting the company’s upcoming Fiat-Mazda roadster may never surface with an Alfa Romeo badge.

The new roadster, announced early last year with Mazda as part of the Japanese carmaker’s next-generation MX-5 project, was originally set to debut as an Alfa sports.

At issue is that Marcchionne won't allow any product carrying the Alfa badge to be manufactured anywhere but in Italy. The contract for the proposed roadster however was to have the Fiat-Mazda roadsters built in Hiroshima.

Now, speaking with press in Geneva this week, Marchionne said there was never an “irrevocable obligation” to work under the Alfa Romeo brand.

"Maybe we will, maybe we won't. The important thing is that industrially the project is moving forward,” he said in a press conference.