{"id":30915,"date":"2023-05-17T15:35:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T19:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=30915"},"modified":"2023-05-18T15:40:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T19:40:01","slug":"alfa-3-0-stellantis-premium-automaker-remakes-itself-as-an-ev-brand-for-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/alfa-3-0-stellantis-premium-automaker-remakes-itself-as-an-ev-brand-for-the-us","title":{"rendered":"Alfa 3.0: Stellantis’ premium automaker remakes itself as an EV brand for the US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arese, Italy<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 A walk back in time through Alfa Romeo\u2019s museum here northwest of Milan reveals a company history as twisted as the country mountain roads on which its performance cars gained their reputation.<\/p>\n

One of Europe\u2019s most storied brands, Alfa was born in 1910. It achieved the pinnacle of motorsport in 1925 with its first world championship, and was taken over by the Italian government in 1933 to save its coach-building business and the jobs it represented. The company transitioned to building aircraft engines during World War II, then emerged from Italy\u2019s ashes to produce compelling vehicles for sale around the world.<\/p>\n

The 2020s bring another dramatic turn in Alfa\u2019s business model: a switch to battery power. Under the ownership of the Italian-French-U.S. conglomerate Stellantis NV, the Italian brand is relaunching itself into the U.S. market for the third time \u2014 call it Alfa 3.0 \u2014 since its debut in the mid-1950s.<\/p>\n

The brand gained notoriety in North America with the iconic Duetto Spider (made famous by the hit 1967 movie \u201cThe Graduate\u201d) then again in 2014 with the introduction of a stable of athletic chariots including the 4C, Giulia and Stelvio. It’s racing now for a hat trick.<\/p>\n

With sharp handling and soaring gas engines, they polished Alfa\u2019s reputation for making emotionally-satisfying vehicles \u2014 however marred with nagging quality problems. Now, with the gas-electric, plug-in hybrid Tonale SUV \u2014 Alfa\u2019s first new model in five years \u2014 the brand joins other legacy premium brands like Cadillac and Jaguar that are going all-electric to take on Tesla amid a government push for zero-emissions automobiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel . . . big pressure on my shoulders as we go all-electric,\u201d CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato\u00a0said at Tonale\u2019s media test-drive at Alfa\u2019s Balocco Proving Grounds northeast of Turin. \u201cWe could have stayed in the internal-combustion engine space, but we decided to move to zero-emission by 2027. At the same time, we don\u2019t want to lose our sportiness as a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Imparato and his team admit the challenges of meeting onerous government regulations in coming years \u2014 particularly in California and so-called ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) states where 50% of Alfas are sold in the United States \u2014 but he also said the consumer market has been fundamentally changed by Tesla.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premium consumer demands electric power,\u201d he told a roundtable just feet away from the hybrid, winged Formula One car that Alfa sponsors in the international open-wheel series. \u201cThey see internal combustion engines as old-fashioned, as a thing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plug-in hybrid Tonale, which has been on sale in Europe for five months, goes head-to-head against the Audi Q3, BMW X1 and segment-leading Volvo XC40. It serves as a bridge to an Alfa lineup that will be fully electric by 2027.<\/p>\n

It’s a move that gives Alfa, which has struggled to gain traction in the United States, a chance to reboot its image with American consumers, said veteran auto analyst Karl Brauer of iSeeCars.com.<\/p>\n

\"Alfa\"Alfa<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cLarge auto conglomerates like Stellantis have decided to commit a brand to go full EV that will help them meet their (regulatory) mandates,\u201d he said. \u201cStruggling legacy brands like Alfa, Cadillac, Jaguar and Mini have been quick to go all-EV as a way to tell a new story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alfa plans a handful of new EVs in the next six years covering 85% of the luxury market, said Imparato. That plan includes a midsize, E-segment sedan later this decade to compete with the BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-class. Alfa plans a small \u201cMini Countryman killer, a perfect urban EV\u201d \u2014 likely for the European market \u2014 in 2024, but the first EV out of the chute for the United States may be a battery-powered sedan carrying the iconic Giulia badge.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectrification means the sedan is back due to its aerodynamics and light weight. You will have an all-electric Giulia,\u201d said Imparato, a speed freak who will pilot a ferocious, 330-horsepower Opel Astra TCR at the 24 Hours of N\u00fcrburgring race with Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares later this month.<\/p>\n

\"The\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Imparato said the Giulia EV would gain a 1,000-horsepower variant (think Quadrifoglio performance model). He also indicated to U.S. media that \u201cwe want to build a car in your country\u201d \u2014 following in the footsteps of European plants from BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen that have sprung up across the South. That commitment has gained urgency as U.S. government subsidies for electrics favor models Made in the USA.<\/p>\n

The Alfa team didn\u2019t shy from the R-word \u2014 reliability. Issues with that have plagued Italian brands in the U.S. market.<\/p>\n

Alfa North America chief Larry Dominique said the U.S. dealer body is \u201cpart of the family\u201d and that quality is on the table. \u201cWe aren\u2019t acting like a premium brand, and you aren\u2019t acting like a premium brand,\u201d Dominique said he told dealers when he took the helm two years ago.<\/p>\n

The result has been marked improvement. Alfa jumped to the top of J.D. Power\u2019s 2022 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) \u2014 a climb of eight places. And Alfa was the biggest brand mover in JD Power\u2019s Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI) this March \u2014 to 29th from 42nd.<\/p>\n

Still, the brand’s U.S. sales went in the opposite direction in 2022,\u00a0dropping 30%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Alfa\"Alfa<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of attitude they will need to have,\u201d said analyst Brauer. \u201cAlfa has delivered cool products with looks, dynamic, and power \u2014 but they got left behind in a crowded U.S. market. Part of that has always been a question of reliability. They\u2019re tackling that head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if to underscore the EV challenge ahead for all automakers, the CSI study also recorded the first year-over-year satisfaction decline in 28 years as electric models led a wave of recalls. EV service satisfaction was 42 points lower than for gas-engine owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t want to make any trade-offs on any items related to quality. In your country Alfa is Latin guys, emotional guys. . . you know what I mean . . . (who) are coming to our country with a (expletive) car,\u2019\u201d said the charismatic Imparato. \u201cI want to demonstrate to the world that this brand is above that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Imparato says that his marching orders from Stellantis CEO Tavares are not to obsess over market share: \u201cI am not interested in getting into a price war,\u201d he said, alluding to Tesla EV price cuts that have lately roiled the electric segment. \u201cMy focus is on quality, value, margin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, as regulations forcing EVs drive up new-vehicle transaction costs (averaging nearly $50,000 this year) into luxury territory, premium brands like Alfa could be crucial to corporate parents\u2019 profit plans.<\/p>\n

Models stickering for more than $60,000 in the U.S. market leapt to 94 this year from 76 in 2021. Dominique said Stellantis projects the premium segment to grow by 34% in coming years compared to just 13% for mainstream models, with premium share growing from 17% to 20% of the pie.<\/p>\n

\"Racing\"Racing<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Alfa awareness also has been helped by its Formula One team that has ridden the international sport\u2019s wave of interest among U.S. fans. F1 now fields three Grand Prix in the United States \u2014 the most of any country \u2014 including the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin that was the most-attended F1 race in the world last year with 440,000 fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cMotorsports is the best return on investment in Stellantis,\u201d said Imparato, reaching back to Alfa\u2019s racing roots to help write the new chapter ahead.<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arese, Italy\u00a0\u2014 A walk back in time through Alfa Romeo\u2019s museum here northwest of Milan reveals a company history as twisted as the country mountain roads on which its performance cars gained their reputation. One of Europe\u2019s most storied brands, Alfa was born in 1910. It achieved the pinnacle of motorsport in 1925 with its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30916,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30915\/revisions\/30916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}