The 159-replacing Giulia will give Alfa another five years to prove it can finally establish itself as a self-supporting car maker. Unless the Giulia range cracks annual sales of 100,000 cars, Alfa itself could reach the end of the line.
In January Fiat Group boss Sergio Marchionne warned that the Alfa division was under close scrutiny. At the Detroit show he told Autocar, “Alfa has been underperforming for a long time.”
New Giulia key to Alfa's future
But last month Marchionne revealed that Alfa Romeo was to undergo another formal relaunch and get a raft of new models, including a new Spider, to drive its annual global sales up to 500,000 units by the end of 2014.
The range revamp has already started, with the Giulietta replacing the unloved 147 and the GT being lined up for the axe.
Alfa will also return to the American market (with the Giulietta, Giulia and a new Spider) by 2013; Fiat believes the brand should be selling around 85,000 units annually there by the following year.
According to Fiat’s 2006 plans, Alfa should sell a total of 300,000 vehicles in 2010. But in 2009 it shifted fewer than 110,000 units.
New models coming in
Giulietta - 2010Mito facelift - 2012Golf-size SUV - 2012New Mito - 2013New Spider - 2013Giulietta facelift - 2014Large SUV - 2014
Outgoing models
Gt - 2010Spider -2011Brera - 2011
