Abarth has high hopes, for a WRC return, higher sales, more dealers, more models and a brighter future.

Fiat's Abarth unit, which is on track to boost sales by 50 percent this year, plans to more than double its global dealership network as it expands its lineup, said Paolo Gagliardo, who heads the performance subbrand.

Abarth is on course to increase global sales to about 10,000 cars this year, Gagliardo told journalists here early this month, despite only offering tuned versions of the Fiat 500.

Next year Abarth will add a new model, Gagliardo said without being specific.

Abarth's head of marketing, Fabrizio Simoni, told Automotive News Europe the brand wants to offer versions of Fiat's 500X subcompact SUV and the new Fiat 124 Spider, but he declined to say when the models would launch.

'Keep growing'

“We want to keep growing and stabilize at a certain level,” Gagliardo said, without giving an estimate of what that level could be. He said the brand now has 300 Abarth sales points within existing Fiat dealerships and will expand that to 750, without giving a timeframe.

He said that Abarth sales were worth a lot both to dealerships and to parent company Fiat Chrysler. 

“It's a huge business opportunity. Our cars are premium-priced,” he said, adding that Abarth variants of the Fiat 500 start at 18,000 euros ($19,000) compared with a the 13,600 starting price for a base 500 variant in Italy. The numbers only grow from there. 

“You find new Abarths selling for up to 40,000 euro even 50,000 euros,” said Gagliardo, who declined to reveal Abarth's average profit margin.

Rally return

A mock-up of the 124 Abarth roadster was shown on the sidelines of the event to a select group. The car is significant because a source at the event said Fiat would use a high-performance variant of the 124 to make its return to the World Rally Championship in a planned new category for rear-wheel-drive sports cars. Fiat's last success in the WRC came in the late '70s and early '80s with the 131 Abarth.

The source had no technical details on the racecar but said the Abarth version of the 124 that will be sold in dealerships will use higher-power versions of the 140-hp 1.4-liter turbocharged gasoline engine planned for the base Fiat 124, which goes on sale in Europe in next May.

Top markets

Abarth's biggest markets are the UK and Italy, which currently tie for first place in sales, Gagliardo said. The UK arm of Abarth plans to increase its dealerships to 105 by the end of next year from 68 now, a spokesman said. The third-biggest market is Japan, where the 124 Abarth will be built alongside the 124 Spider, the source said. Both Fiats are variants of the new-generation Mazda MX-5.

Abarth's aspirations

• Increase global sales points to 750 from 300
• Increase lineup to 3 from 1
• Increase sales 50% to 10,000
• Return Fiat to the World Rally Championship

Nick Gibbs

REPORT HERE