This is what Alfa Romeo's electrified future looks like
Alfa Romeo will go all-electric by 2027 with an even larger lineup.
The Tonale is just the beginning. The sporty Italian brand on Tuesday revealed its first subcompact SUV and first electrified production model. It's a step toward a new broader audience after the premium brand has struggled to gain traction in North America, executives say. But electrification also is meant to create products still fully Alfa: The Tonale's plug-in hybrid version offers the vehicle's most powerful powertrain with 272 horsepower.
"We just think it's another powertrain we can use," said Larry Dominique, senior vice president of Alfa Romeo in North America. "Historically, people have referenced electrification with underperforming until Tesla, right? The first couple generations of Prius, I lived in California for 21 years. We used to make fun of them all the time: 'Get out of my way. You're going too slow. Is your pedal to the floor? Did you run out of battery juice?'
"It's unfortunate, and I think Tesla helped shift that paradigm. They brought it into a performance-oriented environment versus just a fuel economy play. And it really is both."
More: Alfa adds spicy, electrified Tonale SUV appetizer to menu
That's why more is to come, Alfa CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said. The boutique brand will launch its first fully electric vehicle in 2024 that will also have a hybrid option. Another all-electric vehicle will follow in 2025, and two years later, the brand will no longer sell any gas- or diesel-powered vehicles.
That does mean the Tonale revealed on Tuesday will get a new fully electric version in the next five years, Dominique said. Alfa's two other vehicles — the Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV that are already more than five years old — also will get electrified sooner, though not quite yet as their Giorgio platform doesn't support electrification. A minor refresh is coming for both of them for the 2023 model year alongside the launch of the Tonale.
"We're not going to go overboard and spend too much money updating ... this late in the lifecycle," Dominique said. "We'd rather make sure that the next generation of the product delivers in spades. What's state of the art at the time you use the product?"
The brand also is looking at the larger C, D and E segments, he said, though he didn't disclose how many vehicles will be in the fully electrified lineup. How to do halo vehicles is something under consideration, as well.
"We certainly believe halo is an important manifestation of the brand to be refreshed periodically, that you need to remind people that we are in F1, remind people that we develop amazing performance with Quadrifoglio across most of the lineup," he said. "We think it's important for the brand. We just haven't announced or made any concrete decisions. We're going to focus on these core models first."
Ultimately, the goal of the brand is to become younger and more "gender neutral" as opposed to the mostly male customers it attracts today.
"A lot of them have been Alfistis for decades," Dominique said. "They themselves are probably not so much the core target customer we want to go after in the future. What we really need to do is this evolution of who's an Alfisti."
That's why Alfa sees electrification as an advantage. Luxury buyers are looking for new technologies in their vehicles, Dominique said. Still, Alfa's mission will remain being an affordable premium drive.
"I think if I got somebody who's got their 6C or 8C or their 4C Spyder and got them to drive an electrified version of some of the future products," he said, "they'd go, 'Oh yeah, I get it. This is an Alfa. It just happens to be electric.' ... So as long as we're true to Alfa, they'll be true to us."
But, Dominique admits: "If somebody is just married to vibration and visceral feel, the future is gonna be a very different execution for them."
Attracting new customers also means increasing residual values of Alfas. The Tonale will launch with the buzzy non-fungible token technology, also known as NFT. Based on the blockchain technology that backs Bitcoin, it will create a non-corruptible record of the vehicle's history from mileage to service. It has its limits, though, as customers will be able to turn off the feature if they wish and service not done at a dealership won't be included.
Elsewhere, Alfa is seeking to reduce leasing: 82% of its vehicles were leased — as opposed to purchased when Dominique stepped into his role in March 2021 compared with 62% at competitors. At the end of last year, Alfa's rate was down to 70%.
The make also is seeking to increase throughput at its retailers, who Dominique says remain important partners for selling, test drives and servicing. They each sell on average about 143 vehicles per year compared with 500 to 700 at locations for competitors like BMW AG and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz. Alfa now has 138 retailers, down from 177 previously.
"We still act like a startup who's in survival mode," Dominique said. "That's what we think of our little team. Now, we're thinking about the brand, because every day if we're not doing our best to make the brand evolve and improve, it is a risk to not existing in the future. And I'm very confident now we're going to have a very successful future. But it took some mindset changes, and some different attitude shifts really to do that."
bnoble@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @BreanaCNoble