Report: Maserati delays Alfieri till '20

Maserati has delayed its Alfieri sports car until 2020, according to a new report.

The 2+2 car, a rival to Porsche's 911, was slated for launch this year in the brand's 2014 product plan. A concept version was revealed at the 2014 Geneva auto show, with Maserati promising the production car would stick to the concept's design.

Now the car has been put on ice as the Italian brand focuses instead on replacing its larger GranTurismo coupe and cabrio, the British magazine Autocar quoted Maserati's European chief, Giulio Pastore, as saying.

The Alfieri was conceived under the brand's former global head, Harald Wester, whom parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles replaced this year with FCA's U.S. sales chief, Reid Bigland. A Maserati spokeswoman wouldn't say if the decision to delay the Alfieri came from Bigland.

FCA chief Sergio Marchionne has said he wants Maserati's global sales to hit 75,000 by 2018. The brand sold 40,000 cars last year, according to rounded-off figures in the 2015 FCA annual report. Maserati is on the cusp of launching the Levante crossover in the U.S., the brand's biggest market with a 37 percent share of its global sales in 2015.