Alexandre
WhileAlfa Romeo counts in its range only 2 products: the Giulia sedan launched in 2015 and the Stelvio SUV launched in 2017, the small SUV Tonale, presented as a concept in March 2019 is still waiting. Jean-Philippe Imparato unveiled the the launch date for the concession will be June 2022.
The Italian brand is in desperate need of volume, and Jean-Philippe Imparato, the new director of the Alfa Romeo brand, knows it. After visiting the Alfa Romeo museum, testing the Giulia GTAm and unveiling the brand's new headquarters in Turin, he announced that he has been working on a 10-year product plan for the Biscione brand, 5 years of which have already been completed and financed. With almost one new model every year!
It is precisely l'Alfa Romeo Tonale which will be the first electrified model of the brand. And while it was supposed to be launched this year, Jean-Philippe Imparato, after having analyzed the model technically, preferred to postpone the launch to have a perfect product. The hybrid part was not deemed to be sufficiently efficient and effective, especially in terms of autonomy, compared to its direct competitors.
Postponing the launch of the Tonale to have a perfect product: Mr. Imparato is right! How much criticism of the Giulia's infotainment at launch? How many critics of the Stelvio's high-speed soundproofing at launch? Small flaws corrected in subsequent years, but in the end, launching a perfect model at launch is better for customers (and the press).
Thus, the Alfa Romeo Tonale, will be available in dealerships in June 2022It will certainly be presented in a pre-production version at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2022 (if it still exists...), 3 years after the concept. See you then in 2023 for another new model.
Yes, if the positioning is premium everything has to be up to par, I hope that Imparato's sense of detail will be enough to push the teams on the finish and the engines (praying that the style is always fluid and elegant). I also read that he was concerned about the state of the network and that seems to me to be an excellent priority - we must not go towards dematerialization and sabotage since that would be to lose an obvious advantage over the Chinese manufacturers. The other important information would be the retention of the Giorgio platform in the D/E segment.
Yes Giorgio will be kept just renamed STLA Large. It will be more precisely Giorgio LWB, the only rear-wheel drive platform of the Stellantis group.
Alfa Romeo is my favorite brand. And it is true that the network is lacking. Having tested several of them, there is a lack of professionalism at the level of the salesmen. The reception is often average. And the dealerships are a bit...hm...60's provincial garage.
At Peugeot or Audi (for example) it is much more square and professional (at least in appearance). The dealerships smell "new". (And I don't like these 2 brands)
In short, to attract customers to the 2022 dealership...fingers crossed.
Attracting dealers will be even more complicated according to the latest news: termination of all contracts within two years and renewal on a case-by-case basis...
My Brera is still not likely to be replaced by another alfa!
What a madness these suvs are!
They could have fun making this type of truck with Lancia, not Alfa!
Ridiculous!
Surely not with Lancia, which has always been a forerunner in mechanical solutions, going back to the brand's core identity is not following. We'll have to build the range starting with a premium compact sedan and then develop it into a hatchback, coupe and station wagon. It's going to be electric for sure, so we might as well give ourselves the means to be efficient. An SUV has been seen and seen again, the fashion is already for the SUV coupe, the designers will simply integrate the constraints of aerodynamics and consumption by lowering the bodywork.
Lancia being no more, the comfort, the luxury being part of its codes, it was playable, finally more understandable.
But to reduce ALFA to a range of suv! Nonsense, they are devastated in marketing!
The worst for alfa would be as we can read in the press Peugeot engines that suffer from a great lack of reliability and that do not correspond to DNA alfa they will be Peugeot rabadger the same mistake was committed with Lancia it is necessary to leave a true identity to this brand with new models and more frequent renewals and not every ten years otherwise it's the death of alfa and the new group will not change anything
The Italian brands are indeed in a dead end.
No range, no network, shared showrooms, no visibility, Vag = Turbo on M6, no recognition in the press, where you have to be French, German and now Korean to have a positive vocabulary in the articles, tomorrow, this will also be the case for the Chinese.
Always the same old story about plastics, finish, reliability, appalling, as long as they don't take the same position as the Korean who guarantees his vehicles for 10 years, they won't go looking for new customers.
Alfiste, 147, Mito, 159, Giulia and now Stelvio, it is true that the network is poor.
When you want a Mercedes, you go to Mercedes, same for Audi or Bmw.
When you want an Alfa, there are Fiat, Jeeps, sometimes Toyota and Koreans.
VAG, understood it by dissociating VW and Audi.
If you want to make premium, don't mix.
As for the range, it's true that it's poor, I'm tired of always waiting for a new model. Moreover, if it is to see PSA rebadged Alfa, no interest.