Alfa kills Giulia wagon plans to make way for Stelvio SUV

Alfa Romeo will no longer spin-off a wagon version of its recently launched Giulia sedan.

Originally, the Italian car-maker was reportedly set to launch a Giulia Sportwagon in Europe in late 2017.

Demand for premium load-luggers is tiny in Australia but strong in Euro markets like Germany and the UK, but now Car magazine says the Giulia wagon has been ruled out anyway.

According to Alfredo Altavilla, Alfa's manufacturing boss, a rear-wheel drive wagon is now off the table: "We decided not to do a Giulia Sportwagon.

"Do we really need it if the Stelvio SUV drives that well? Maybe not. With our fine-tuning, the Stelvio can capture all the people who would otherwise have been interested in the SW."

The Giulia Sportwagon was set to be a rival for the BMW 3 Series Touring and the Mercedes C-Class Estate.

Altavilla didn't admit as much, but it's also thought the extra development time (and cost) and the subsequent delay they caused might have been contributing factors to ruining the business case for a Giulia wagon.

Alfa Romeo is under immense pressure from its parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to sell 400,000 vehicles globally by 2020.

Now it will be up to the Giulia Sprint coupe (set to be revealed at next month's Geneva motor show), as well as a forthcoming convertible, large sedan, small hatch and two more SUVs to rapidly increase volume.

All will be based on Alfa's new Giorgio platform and will share the Giulia's turbocharged 2.0-litre, 2.2-litre diesel and, in some cases, the mighty 375kW/600Nm 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6.

Out of the raft of new models the most crucial will be the Stelvio SUV that's already primed to be Alfa's best-selling car Down Under.

Arriving here by the end of 2017, the all-new Italian SUV will be aimed at other mid-size European SUVs like the Jaguar F-PACE, priced from under $75,000.