Tonale: build is due to start at the Giambattista Vico plant in Pomigliano d’Arco during May
Only a few years ago, witnessing Alfa Romeo sales slide below 50,000 vehicles across the dozens of its European markets was awful. Then came 2021, ACEA’s data revealing the number to be 26,322, down 28 per cent from the terrible result of 2020 (36,443). Exports to Japan were tiny (222 in 2021), China too (1,409, -12 percent in 2021), although the USA wasn’t too bad (18,250, down two per cent).
It’s sad that this long crash was something which Fiat Chrysler Automobiles could have prevented but didn’t. Prior to today’s announcement of La Metamorfosi (“Tonale, the model that marks the brand’s metamorphosis”), the last time Alfa Romeo revealed a new car was more than half a decade ago: the Stelvio’s premiere at the LA auto show in November 2016. Considering such facts, it’s incredible really that the marque is even still going.
The spin is all about a grand renaissance but do successful sports-luxury makes need to do such things? Would Audi or BMW or Mercedes or Lexus hold such an event? This is an emergency reset and Stellantis’ management knows it.
There have been many previous reboots, none of which worked because the top people soon lost interest and proper investment was never forthcoming. The irony is that the most recent one gave us the Giulia and Stelvio, two vehicles which were so well engineered that they remain competitive against the best-in-class. Would that more potential buyers gave them consideration. But why would they when FCA did so little to promote or evolve these models? Imagine BMW launched a new 3 Series (but no Touring) followed by a new X3. Then did more or less nothing for years. No additional engines, no mild hybrids, no hybrids, no facelifts. Unthinkable.
Will Stellantis put the big money into Alfa Romeo that’s been needed for decades? Only time will tell. Just as much as cash, corporate attention and some realism about the sales potential of all models combined is needed too.
The Giulia and Stelvio should be due for replacement soon-ish but instead they’ll likely be made to soldier on for some years. Incredibly, neither has even had a facelift and the Giulia will be six come April.
The man now running Alfa must nurture this deeply injured marque and educate a new generation of potential customers about the truly fantastic heritage, all the while finding ways to make forthcoming electric models stand out. And be successful.
There are some promising signs, such as as the sold-out super-Giulias (GTA and GTAm) but if there is to be a true Metamorfosi – an accidental or clever play on a current buzzword by using those first four letters? – it will take a long time.
Carlos Tavares has to mean it when he says that Alfa has a decade to be turned around, for there is much deep damage to be corrected. On the plus side, the history is incredible and begs to be better and more fully exploited. The hard work is however only just beginning.
If the Tonale becomes a spark that catches – the car buying public’s imagination – and there are waiting lists, then we’ll know that far better times might just be coming.
This international treasure has deserved a proper focus from a parent for way too long. Arguably since Fiat snatched control of the firm in the 1980s to prevent it being bought by Ford. Maybe 2022 is when things begin to get better.
The new models
The first new Alfa Romeo since the Stelvio was introduced in 2017 debuted earlier on 8 February. A factory in Naples will build the Tonale at an expected annual rate of around 60,000 units. There will be multiple petrol engine choices including a hybrid and a PHEV plus a (130 PS and 320 Nm) 1.6-litre diesel but no EV versions of this 4.53 m long SUV.
A high-priced launch edition gets the sales ball rolling in June. As with other early versions, it will be powered by a Miller Cycle 1.5-litre petrol engine. The same unit was recently added to the Jeep Renegade and Compass. Combined power and torque are 130 PS and 240 Nm. A seven-speed (code: 7HDT300) dual-clutch automatic gearbox is the only available transmission. The 48-volt motor’s outputs are 15 kW (20 PS) and 55 Nm – claimed to be equivalent to 135 Nm at gearbox input level.
The Tonale will also gain a 160 PS version of the 1.5-litre engine in 2023. Before then (October), a 275 PS PHEV will be added, while for North America, a 252 horsepower 2.0-litre turbo will be standard. Unlike the 1.5, this one is linked to an all-wheel drive system. The gearbox is different too, being a nine-speed automatic.
The new SUV is named after the concept which appeared at the 2019 Geneva motor show. The platform is the former FCA’s SUSW Evo, that being the case as the project was started during the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles era. The life cycle should be between five and eight years: it’s hard to be specific due to the legacy architecture and all manner of other variables.
Alfa will be fully electric in 2027, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares declared in August 2021. What that means for PHEV versions of models still fresh five years from now isn’t clear. Perhaps the ICE-only cars will be dropped at the end of 2026 or instead, a replacement launched using a Stellantis-specific e-platform.
A desperately needed further model is two and a bit years away. This small crossover positioned below the Tonale and aimed at the Audi Q2 should be manufactured in Poland on the same line as equivalent vehicles for Fiat and Jeep. A possible Lancia may arrive later in the decade.
Being based on STLA Small (the former Dongfeng Motor and Groupe PSA’s CMP/e-CMP architectures) means there can also be an electric version. The name could be Brennero, Castello or something different.
The latest head of Alfa Romeo, Jean-Philippe Imparato, who previously ran Peugeot, is also in charge of coordinating activities for a newly created shared group of brands: Alfa, Lancia and DS. Interviewed in November 2021, the chief executive stated that Alfa’s first EV would arrive in 2024. Petrol versions could be launched at the same time but these would be dropped by 2027.
What then of the Giulia and Stelvio? In April 2021, just three months after the official start of business for Stellantis, the brand’s then-new and still present CEO said that certain future models would be based on an architecture called ‘STLA large’. Days earlier, Carlos Tavares named four platforms which would be used worldwide: STLA Small, STLA Medium, STLA Large and STLA Frame.
Should Alfa’s only sedan and its SUV equivalent be replaced, each will likely use STLA Medium and be launched only as EVs. The current generations are well overdue for nips and tucks and that should be happening this year. This will probably mean life cycles extended into 2026.
Some would ask how on earth Stellantis thinks the Giulia/Stelvio can be kept going for a further four years. Well, each has already done remarkably well during a long period of near-desuetude. Also, strange things can happen, as another group model proves: the 14 year old Dodge Challenger. Still in demand thanks to brilliant, constant (and not even expensive) evolution.
If J-P Imparato is smart, he’ll mimic the Dodge strategy – the origin of which came from tiny budgets imposed by former Chrysler owner Cerberus and which continued under FCA – and send these models into the sunset on a high. Juicy-margin, modest-volume editions with powerful petrol engines and suffixes from Alfa’s glory days (e.g. Alfetta, Monza, Sportiva, Montreal, TZ, Competizione etc…) could work.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of Just Auto.
Future platform intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of GlobalData’s Automotive Intelligence Center. That includes other Alfas not featured above.
The next instalment in the focus on Stellantis future models will look at Maserati, then Jeep, followed by Peugeot, Citroën DS; and finally, Opel and Vauxhall. Recently published articles for related brands concerned Fiat, Abarth and Lancia as well as Chrysler, Dodge and Ram.
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