Alfa Romeo had hoped to sell 400,000 cars a year… but it’s actually selling 60,000 and is looking for a replacement for its Giulia

Let's go back ten years. Alfa Romeo This comes after a period during which the brand launched the 4C in 2013, after the MiTo in 2008 and the Giulietta in 2010. But Sergio Marchionne has much bigger plans. His goal is to completely revitalize Alfa Romeo and finally turn it into a true competitor to BMW.

Billions of euros are being invested. A new platform, new engines, a new lineup: everything must change. The Giulia appears, followed a year later by the Stelvio. The ambition is immense, with a goal that seems almost unrealistic today: to reach 400,000 annual sales. We know the rest by heart.

It's not a failure… it just didn't work out

It's 2026, and the Giulia and Stelvio are still in the lineup, even though their run is now coming to an end. In the meantime, the Tonale in 2022, built on a platform derived from the Jeep Compass. After a strong start, sales plummeted, and the model no longer really meets market expectations.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Milano, which was quickly renamed Junior, is a close cousin of the Peugeot 2008, which is assembled in Poland. It is now largely this model that is driving Alfa Romeo’s sales. And let’s be realistic: the brand is not expected to exceed 60,000 sales this year.

Ten years after the overambitious plans of the Marchionne era, Alfa Romeo seems to be returning to its roots as a more regional brand, with more modest product ambitions. Stellantis appointed a new CEO in 2025, and Alfa Romeo also replaced a significant portion of its management team. Santo Ficili has been leading the brand since late 2024, Gilles Vidal became [...], during the summer of 2025 Director of Design for European Brands, and Arnaud Belloni recently took over as head of marketing for European brands. So there have been a lot of changes at the top, and the product strategy is evolving as well.

A much more streamlined Alfa Romeo lineup

In the coming years, we expect a facelift for the Junior, followed by the Tonale’s successor. The latter is expected to be a close cousin of the Peugeot 3008 and could also indirectly take the place of the Stelvio: with dimensions falling between those of the two current SUVs, it would allow Alfa Romeo to streamline its lineup. A new Giulietta is also expected, built on the STLA One platform, and will likely share many technical similarities with the future Peugeot 308.

But one question remains: the D-segment. That’s because the new Giulia and Stelvio—which were expected to be built on the STLA Large platform—have been canceled. Instead, we simply know that a new D-segment model is in the works, with a launch expected by 2030. So, what can Alfa Romeo really offer?

It's hard to imagine an SUV

In our view, this mysterious model is unlikely to be an SUV. If the future Tonale is nearly as large as the current Stelvio, why would Alfa Romeo want to develop an even larger vehicle for the European market? An Alfa Romeo equivalent to the BMW X5—likely priced at around 80,000 euros or more—seems difficult to reconcile with the brand’s current sales volumes and its new, more reasonable ambitions.

That would leave two main possibilities: a sedan or a coupe. In either case, Alfa Romeo could turn it into a sort of «halo car»—a model positioned at the top of its lineup and designed as much to boost the brand’s image as to drive sales volume. But we know Stellantis: to make such a project viable, it needs to be a joint effort.

Dodge, Peugeot… or Maserati?

One possibility leads us to the United States. The new Dodge Charger is built on the STLA Large platform and is available as both a sedan and a coupe, with a length of nearly five meters. Technically, it’s not impossible to imagine an Alfa Romeo using this platform. But it would then risk becoming the group’s only European car to use the STLA Large platform, which seriously undermines this hypothesis.

Second possibility: Peugeot. The French automaker is expected to launch seven new models by 2030, including two in the D-segment. Among them is a «shooting brake» that would use a Dongfeng platform. Here again, synergies would be possible. The question remains: how could Alfa Romeo convince its customers to accept a high-end Italian model derived from a Peugeot and based on a Chinese-designed architecture? The marketing challenge would be a delicate one.

And then there’s Maserati. This is probably the most natural path, both geographically and industrially. Alfa Romeo and Maserati have the same CEO, and the two brands share the Cassino plant, which is currently significantly underutilized. A future flagship Alfa Romeo developed in parallel with a Maserati would therefore make a certain amount of sense.

The problem is that Maserati’s future itself remains particularly unclear. The brand is seeking an industrial partner, and its new product plan is due to be presented by the end of 2026. Under these circumstances, it’s difficult to draw any firm conclusions today about a potential merger between the two brands.

Alfa Romeo's Big Mystery by 2030

So, which D-segment Alfa Romeo will actually make it to market? For now, there’s no clear answer. The solution could come from the United States with Dodge and STLA Large, from France with Peugeot, or from Italy with Maserati. Sedan, coupe, or shooting brake? Everything is still up in the air.

One thing, however, seems much clearer: before the possible arrival of this high-end Alfa Romeo, the brand is expected to operate with three models based on three different architectures: the Junior on eCMP, the future Tonale on STLA Medium, and the new Giulietta on STLA One.

After once dreaming of producing 400,000 cars a year, Alfa Romeo seems to have changed its philosophy. Perhaps the question is no longer how to cover every segment, but rather how to find the right model, at the right price, and with the right synergies. And in the D-segment, that equation is still far from being solved.