FCA scraps plans to replace the Alfa Romeo 8C and GTV in favour of two new SUVs

FCA, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles revises its plans for Alfa Romeo and shuts the door on a replacement for the Alfa Romeo 8C

The presentation of the Alfa Romeo Tonale prototype has only confirmed that the Italian brand has eyes solely for this year’s big winners: hybrid SUVs.

At the end of October, FCA reviewed its short and medium-term plans, covering the period from 2018 to 2022, and decided to amend the product roadmap that had put up to 6 new vehicles on the table, including the new Alfa Romeo GTV and a successor to the brand-new Alfa Romeo 8C.

Something that now looks like it won’t happen, neither for the new affordable sports car from Alfa Romeo nor for the Italians’ dream car, as both projects have been dropped from the new car schedule.

The high-performance sports car that could have challenged its cousins at Maserati and Ferrari, without giving up the DNA of a brand with a history linked to competition and sporty driving such as Alfa Romeo.

The replacement for the Alfa Romeo 8C was expected to be a berlinetta with at least 600 CV or even more if an electric system were adopted. That, definitely, will not happen, at least not before 2022.

The Alfa Romeo GTV also promised to recover the spirit of the beautiful Italian cars that offered pure driving thrills without compromising the wallets of more modest Alfa enthusiasts.

Nor will a new compact arrive to replace the Giulietta, nor an E-segment saloon that could share or compete with the Giulia, which will go without the extended wheelbase version, or LWB, which was also planned to arrive, in principle, for the Chinese market.

The Italians, always fashionable

Instead, the fall of the models mentioned will make way for two new SUVs: a C-segment SUV, based on the Alfa Romeo Tonale, and another SUV in the B segment.

The Alfa Romeo Tonale will be a hybrid SUV that will arrive on the electrified architecture already presented for the Jeep Renegade and the hybrid Jeep Compass, and will fill the niche left by the Giulietta.

https://youtu.be/oPGpzuBoMYM

For its part, the B-segment SUV will fill the gap left by the Alfa Romeo MiTo, a car that stopped being produced in 2018 due to the low interest it attracted.

On the other hand, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, even in its sportiest version, manages to attract customers, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia holds on, barely, as one of the few stylish saloons on the market.

Without a doubt, this reformulation of the Alfa Romeo plans makes it clear that manufacturers are inexorably turning towards making the most of a trend that has SUVs as the engine of the automotive industry’s economy.