Alfa Romeo Can Only Build Sports Cars if it Does This
Cristiano Fiorio, head of Alfa Romeo Global Marketing and Communication, said the storied Italian brand would love to have a new “reachable” sports car, but first has “to deliver” on more mainstream machines.
Key Points
- In North America, Alfa Romeo currently sells the Tonale small crossover (in gasoline-fueled and plug-in hybrid variants), Giulia sedan and Stelvio midsize crossover. Alfa Romeo allo sells the Junior subcompact crossover in some markets.
- Alfa Romeo’s last sports car was the 4C line that was produced from 2013-2020. Before that, the limited-production 8C Competizione was sold between 2007 and 2010.
- The Italian automaker’s sporty reputation was built over the years with sporty coupes and sedans, and much of its street cred comes from race-winning performance.
Automotive history books are full of beautiful and highly desirable sports cars wearing Alfa Romeo badges. The most recent example was the 4C Coupe and Spider that ended production in 2020. At present, though, Alfa Romeo’s lineup is focused on more mainstream sedans and SUVs.
In an interview with Car Magazine in the U.K., Alfa Romeo marketing head Cristiano Fiorio said, “Any person working at Alfa Romeo will tell you that we would like to have another performance sort of reachable car,” he said. “But I always believe that, before going into dreams, we have to deliver.”
In this case, to “deliver” likely means to hit sales and profitability goals with its bread-and-butter lineup, which will include the next versions of the Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV. “Once we have done a track record on that, then we can dream,” he said.
Fiorio told Car Magazine that the brand’s current halo car, the 33 Stradale, only exists because it “was managed outside the normal business day-to-day of the company” and did “not impact the day-to-day activities.”
It’s unclear at this point what a future “reachable” sports car from Alfa Romeo may look like, or what platform it would be based on. Car Magazine says Fioro hinted that the brand’s excellent 2.9-liter V6 will fit in the STLA Large chassis that Alfa Romeo will have access to through parent company Stellantis, but that doesn’t mean much. In this case, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Growing up in a family obsessed with performance and as the son of an automotive engineer, Jeremy Korzeniewski has spent his entire life as a car enthusiast. Also an avid motorcyclist, Jeremy has spent the last two decades writing about the transportation industry and providing insights to many of the largest automotive publications in the world.
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