Thursday, April 22, 2010

Alfa Romeo's 2010-2014 Product Plans Include New Giulia and Spider, but no Succesor for Brera. U.S. Sales Start in 2012


Here we go again; the Fiat Group today announced plans to revive Alfa Romeo with a raft of new models that will also play a key role in the relaunch of the brand in the U.S. market (how many times have we heard that before?) by 2013.

Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne said that Alfa Romeo will launch seven new models from 2010 to 2014 starting with the new Giulietta that will receive an extensive facelift in 2014.

The next newcomer from Alfa will be a replacement for its BMW 3-Series rivaling 159 that will be named Giulia.

Set to arrive in 2012, the Giulia will be based on an existing Fiat platform (most likely, a wider and longer version of the Guilietta's new platform). It will be offered in four-door sedan and station wagon variants and according to the plan, it will mark the return of the Alfa Romeo brand in the States.

The same year will see Alfa introducing a facelift version of its three-door MiTo supermini and a Chrysler Group-based compact-size SUV that will be produced and sold in the States.

In 2013, Alfa will add a five-door model to its MiTo range and launch the car in the U.S. The plan also includes the presentation of a new Spider that will be produced in Europe and the U.S.

There has been speculation that the new Spider will be based on a rear-wheel drive platform derived from Mercedes Chrysler, but this has yet to be confirmed officially. Either way, we hope it looks a lot like Pininfarina's gorgeous 2uettottanta concept (see details and pics here) that was revealed at last month's Geneva gathering.

Finally, in 2014, Alfa Romeo will present a Chrysler Group-based mid-size SUV. Like its smaller brethren, this model will also be manufactured in America.

It's also worth noting that Alfa Romeo's 2010-2014 product plan does not include a replacement for the GT 2+2 coupe, the Brera and the long-gone 166 sedan. The latter was supposed to be replaced by the 169 in 2009 while Alfa's previous plans mentioned the introduction of a compact SUV in 2010 - that said, don't take Fiat Group's product plans for granted, or at least not all of them...




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