Alfa Romeo sports car to crown new model assault

The Alfa Romeo 4C sports car has been confirmed to get a spiritual successor as part of the Italian car-maker’s upcoming new product onslaught, which will see a fresh Alfa model launched globally every year as of 2024.

Speaking to Australian media this week, Alfa Romeo product boss Daniel Guzzafame said the new product plan would yield a five- or six-model portfolio – excluding the intermittent exotic halo – and cover most bases within the premium market.

“When you have five to six cars, let’s say five cars plus one specialty, something like that, you are 100 per cent capable of covering the vast majority of the premium market which is where we play, and satisfy the needs of those who want the sport car – those who want the practicality, but of course with a sporty look, those who want efficiency and so that’s what we are targeting,” he said.

Guzzafame confirmed the battery-electric versions of the Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV would be released next year, ahead of their respective replacements emerging as two of these key new models, with the sports car project already well under way.

“We are in advanced project phase for what is the next sport platform application for, let’s say more for everybody – whether that is including carbon [monocoque] or not at this stage I don’t know because we gave two or three different options,” he said.

“We will select the one that will fit better with, on one side the performance, on the other side, the need of having of course electric powertrains and on the third side, keep it at a decent cost.

“We know where we want to go, but at this stage we do have three different paths, one of which is carbon.”

A halo sports model has been deemed one of the key segments Alfa is targeting and says it needs to be present in to keep itself relevant.

Guzzafame wouldn’t be drawn on exactly when the 4C successor would materialise but did say the priority was on establishing the core, volume-selling products within the market before coming out with a new brand flagship so not to repeat the mistakes made when the 4C was in production.

“The problem of the brand at the moment of the 4C was that you went into a showroom and there was the 4C, then you looked around and there was nothing else,” he said.

“That cannot happen, because if not, you’re throwing away all of the collateral positive effect of having a car like that in your showrooms.”

Reading between the lines then it’s safe to say we won’t see another dainty Alfa Romeo sports car until towards the end of the decade, by which point the brand will be an EV-only manufacturer and in turn loosely positioning the new sports model as a competitor for future Porsche 718 variants and Lotus products.

All of the core models launched as of 2025 will be battery-electric only, in the lead-up to an all-electric portfolio as of 2027, and yet Guzzafame has left the door open the possible return of internal combustion somewhere within the line-up.

But that depends on what ends up happening with the final EU7 regulations which have been in flux for the past couple of years as manufacturers and national governments kick back against the proposed standards.

Key to this flexibility as well as the upcoming product onslaught is Alfa’s membership of the Stellantis group, which will enable it to leverage and co-develop modular platforms with other brands, like for instance Maserati with the previously reported MC20/33 Stradale relationship.

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