Just days after Fiat and Mazda announced a joint venture to develop their most famous sports cars, the Italian automaker is reportedly considering a plan to build Mazda vehicles at Fiat and Chrysler assembly plants worldwide in an effort to reduce production costs.

Photomontage: Auto123.com

Fiat is used to this sort of partnership, having already built the small Fiat 500 in a joint venture with Ford's Ka; the Fiat Punto with General Motors' Opel Corsa; and the Fiat Sedici with a Suzuki mini-SUV, sharing the investment costs of around 1 billion euros ($1.26 billion) needed to develop each new car.

On Wednesday, Fiat announced that its new Alfa Romeo Spider will be built on the same architecture as the Mazda MX-5.

"We will continue to look at other bilateral arrangements," Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters at a Chrysler plant in Belvedere, Illinois.


_{Source: Reuters}