Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. If there’s one group of car enthusiasts who can’t wait for a world full of EVs, it’s probably this one. Yet they too have to believe it, but Alfa seems to do his utmost to make the inescapable step as painless as possible.
No, the above is not the outcome of an investigation, but an ordinary assumption. However, that assumption does not come out of the blue. Alfa Romeo enthusiasts have more to do with the classic values of driving a car than with other brands: sound, design, experience and an analog, sporty driving experience. At a brand like BMW, yet also sporty, technology and being at the forefront with the latest gadgets have traditionally played a much greater role than with Alfa Romeo. Nevertheless, the Italians only want to offer electric cars from 2027. Alfa Romeo must therefore come up with an EV that fits into the new world, but that at the same time does not upset the traditional enthusiast.
Alfa Romeo does that to start with by not only coming up with SUVs or crossovers, but also with a sedan. The successor to the Giulia, which has been running in its current form since 2016, will most likely be fully electric. We know this from an interview with our British colleagues from Auto Express with Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Phillipe Imparato. When asked, he also indicated that the electric Giulia successor, heavy batteries or not, must show a light-footed driving behaviour. “That is fundamental for Alfa Romeo”, is his firm conviction. That will be a big job for the Alfa engineers, who cannot develop their own platform under the regime of the Stellantis group.
bigger than now
The Stellantis group was created with the aim of creating economies of scale and that means that Alfa Romeo has to follow the pace of nations. In principle, all Stellantis models will be on one of the four new STLA platforms. The STLA Large base is reportedly chosen for the electric Alfa Romeo sedan. That would mean a battery pack of well over 100 kWh, so the range is fine. For comparison: a Tesla Model 3 Long Range has about 75 kWh on board, a BMW i4 84 kWh. However, STLA Large also means that Alfa’s new sedan will grow considerably. ‘Large’ is a platform intended for the larger D-segmenters and E-segmenters, so that the ‘Giulia’ (the name is not yet known) may be more suitable for the BMW 5-series than the 3-series . To stay in EV terms, the new model would then compete with models such as the Mercedes-Benz EQE and the yet-to-be-revealed BMW i5 and Audi A6 e-tron.
Stellantis is therefore building its electric future on four electric platforms, but then leaves the various brands very free in the interpretation of their models. That goes quite far, because the STLA base allegedly even allows the choice between front, four- or rear-wheel drive, because electric motors can simply be placed at will. For Alfa Romeo, a rear-wheel drive configuration is of course obvious, because that is also the norm in this segment among the competition. Unfortunately, we can only guess at the appearance of the first electric Alfa Romeo sedan. There is simply not yet a basis in the form of espionage images or a concept car, but our in-house artist has done his best. There is of course some input, because we know broadly what the Alfa Romeo Tonale will look like. We see the sleek LED headlight units of that car, albeit in an even flatter and sharper shape. No brand where the grille plays such a major role in the family face as Alfa. So that ‘Scudetto’ simply returns, albeit in a completely or partially closed form.
Classic sporty
Once again, the iconic shield shape will split the nose from top to bottom, propelling the license plate to a spot off center. A short front overhang, relatively long nose and low window line give the car a classic sporty appearance. The hollow flanks give it something 166-ish. Of course this is ‘just’ an artistic splurge, but it would be a good way to fill the huge piece of steel between the front and rear axle in a historically responsible way.
The new Giulia-like raises the question of whether there will also be an electric Quadrifoglio. Such a sporty top version is certainly not excluded according to Imparato, but only if the car can be worth the label. Alfa does not intend to throw away its sports label, but maintains the position that a car must earn that magical ‘Q’. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the electric Alfa sedan soon. Alfa Romeo has a knack for postponing introductions, but with the promised transition in 2027, a lot has to be done. The brand’s first EV is set to launch in 2024, followed by annual launches of other EVs. For the Giulia, we are aiming for 2025 for the time being, but that is by no means certain.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl