Alfa Romeo EVs to feature retro low-drag tail design

Alfa Romeo has revealed some of the design secrets it will apply to its incoming range of all-new electric vehicles, starting with its still-to-be-named new small SUV due in 2024.

According to the Italian brand’s design boss Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, future EVs will draw direct inspiration from the past and feature the ‘Coda Tronca’ or Kamm tail that was first introduced by Zagato on the 1962 Alfa Romeo TZ1.

“We will be using Coda Tronca in the future,” Mesonero-Romanos told carsales.

“When we took it to the wind tunnel, it [provided] fantastic results to the point that you would even wonder yourself why Alfa Romeo ever abandoned it.”

Invented by Austrian engineer Wunibald Kamm in the late 1930s, the Kamm trail looks like a sharply truncated, or chopped, rear tail and slashes aerodynamic drag, making it ideal for maximising range for pure-electric cars.

Italian coachbuilder Zagato started using the same aero trick that it renamed as Coda Tronco in the mid-1950s before introducing it on the Giulietta SZ2 in 1959.

It then used the clever aero aid in 1963 on the iconic Giulia TZ, which was a revelation. Racing versions with just 120kW and an ultra-lightweight 650kg kerb weight were capable of a maximum speed of more than 216km/h.

The short-tail arrangement would then continue to be used on some of the Italian car-maker’s iconic models, including the Series 2 Spider (1970-83).

Mesonero-Romanos said the dramatic short-tail look would give the brand’s future EVs a “distinctive, classically Alfa Romeo design character”.

As well as the Coda Tronca, Alfa’s design boss also confirmed that all future vehicles will still proudly feature its trademark Scudetto shield-shaped frontal air intake, including the new family of EVs.

“The Scudetto is something that is unique and has always been unique since it was started to be applied in the ’30s, so this is something [that] will remain,” he said.

According to Mesonero-Romanos, Alfa Romeo does not plan to follow in BMW’s tracks and upsize the grille, especially in the age of electrification.

“Everyone is getting this kind of a race to see who’s bigger. We are not playing that. With the Scudetto you can do almost the opposite. You can do something beautiful and small,” he said.

Expect the future shield to be far more aerodynamic than today and perhaps a design element employed to hide a camera, or radar, needed for its advanced driver assist tech.

Despite looking back at past models to inspire the future, Mesonero-Romanos said he was conscious of not falling into the trap of creating retro pastiches.

“We need to put a new sauce in our designs, we need to put modernity because the young people who will buy those cars maybe won’t even know our history,” he said.

The first series-production Alfa Romeo model to incorporate the Coda Tronca design is expected to be the all-electric small SUV that’s due in 2024 and will be heavily based on the Jeep Avenger sold in Europe.

Originally thought to be named Brenerro, Mesonero-Romanos claimed the nameplate for the EV was still to be locked in.

The design boss also confirmed both the Giulia and Stelvio would be replaced, possibly in 2025, while a new large SUV would help the brand finally establish itself in the US.

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