Alfa abandons plans for an all-electric future

Faltering demand for EVs has forced the Italian sports car brand back to the drawing board

- By Phil McNamara

ALFA Romeo's turnaround bid is struggling for takeoff, with holes blown in its new model rollout due to regulatory and commercial pressures. The new Stelvio and the successor to the Giulia saloon are the biggest casualties: the all-new SUV was scheduled for launch in 2025 – but it's been pushed back for two years while Alfa totally re-engineers it.

“We are changing our path because we were imagining Alfa Romeo's future was electric-only, to respect the rules coming from Brussels,” Santo Ficili, the brand's CEO, told Auto Express during an exclusive conversation in Belgium. But with consumers not flocking to EVs in the numbers predicted, the US withdrawing electric car incentives and the EU diluting its demands for the new car market to be totally electric by 2035, Alfa Romeo has been forced to rip up its plans.

“We need to change everything,” explained Ficili. “We need to go from only BEV to all the other powertrains. You can imagine what it means we need to change: to reinvent platforms, electronic architectures, connectivity of the car, not only for Alfa Romeo but all the [Stellantis group] brands.”