Fiat SpA’s Maserati plant located in the outskirts of Turin has been renamed after company patriarch Giovanni “Gianni” Agnelli. From 1966 to 1996, the Italian industrialist and controlling Fiat shareholder served as the company’s chairman. Agnelli was 81 years old when he died a decade ago this month. John Elkann, the present Fiat chairman and Agnelli’s grandson, said that the company and his family hoped to find a way to pay a tribute to Gianni’s strong link to the Turin region. This plant is now named Officine Maserati Grugliasco, Giovanni Agnelli. Last Wednesday at the official opening of the plant, Elkann said that the plant had been closed for six years. This month, Grugliasco started to build Maserati’s new Quattroporte flagship sedan. Ghibli, which is a smaller model targeted at the mid luxury segment will start production in the 2nd quarter of 2013.
Fiat purchased the facility in 2009 from Carrozzeria Bertone since there was no longer any work for the contract manufacturing business. Starting in 1960 until 2006, Bertone produced models that range from the Lamborghini Miura to the Volkswagen Polo at this plant. Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said that the company spent over 1 billion euros to totally revamp the plant and to enhance Maserati’s worldwide sales to 50,000 units by 2015 from slightly more than 6,000 last year. He added that the Grugliasco plant can build 200 units a day on three shifts, for a total of around 45,000 units a year. However, this output may double if necessary.
