Stellantis buries the Giorgio platform: billions of euros invested will never pay off

When Sergio Marchionne unveiled the Alfa Romeo Giulia in June 2015, it wasn't just the launch of a new sports sedan. It was also the birth of an entirely new platform, the Giorgio, the fruit of billions of euros of investment. Conceived as the technical basis for Alfa Romeo's rebirth, Giorgio was to carry a whole range of premium models with rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, capable of competing with BMW, Audi and Mercedes.

Huge ambitions for Alfa Romeo

The Giulia was the first model to benefit from the new system in 2016, followed by the Stelvio in 2017. Both models win over the press and enthusiasts with their dynamism, but sales fall far short of targets (barely 120,000 Alfa Romeo per year at best, against the 400,000 hoped for). The relaunch effect will not materialize.

Maserati invites itself onto Giorgio

To make the investment worthwhile, Giorgio is then adapted to the new Maseratis. First came the Grecale SUV, launched in 2022, then came the new GranTurismo and GranCabrio, launched on an evolved Giorgio 1.5 platform, proof that Stellantis hadn't totally abandoned the idea of adding value to it.

An Achilles heel: electrification

The problem is that Giorgio was originally designed for combustion engines and light hybrids. PHEV models had indeed been considered in 2018, but plans were abandoned in 2019. True, the Grecale MHEV exists, and Giorgio 1.5 eventually gave birth to 100 % electric versions of the Grecale, GranTurismo and GranCabrio. But electrification came too late, and not in line with market expectations.

Billions invested... for nothing

Today, Stellantis draws the line. In its half-yearly report for 2025, the Group states that it has written down over 550 million euros for Maserati and around 26 million for Alfa Romeo, directly linked to the platforms used by these brands. All in all, several hundred million euros in book losses have been recorded in recent months, after admitting that forecast volumes will never be sufficient to amortize the initial investment.

Clearly, the billions injected into Giorgio to develop five models - Giulia, Stelvio, Grecale, GranTurismo and GranCabrio - will never pay off.

Stellantis's decision to bury Giorgio is not just an accounting decision. It is also symbolic: one of the most ambitious projects of the FCA era is now considered an industrial failure. Future Alfa Romeo and Maserati models will be based on the STLA Large and STLA Medium platforms, designed from the outset for electrification and aimed at reducing costs through greater pooling within the Group.