Alfa Romeo to abandon EV-only plans: report

ALFA ROMEO is set to abandon its plans to go all-electric by 2027.

According to North American head of Alfa Romeo, Chris Feuell, the Italian brand will instead adopt a “multi-energy strategy”, not dissimilar to that announced by Smart last week.

Alfa Romeo said previously that the Tonale plug-in hybrid SUV would be the last model produced with a petrol engine.

Now, it appears that plan has changed, with Ms Feuell telling Automotive News that an all-electric portfolio would spell the end for the brand in North America.

“The biggest thing in our product and technology road map is transitioning from what was a BEV-only strategy for Alfa to one that is multi-energy,” she said.

“We have 110 dealers ... in our US network, and it would be very challenging for them to survive with a BEV-only portfolio.”

Ms Feuell said the largest concern among North American Alfa Romeo dealers was the brand’s 38 per cent sales slip in the last quarter of 2024.

Regional sales for the brand have decreased each year for four consecutive years.

It is understood that dealerships are over-burdened by old-plated stock, with more than half of the brand’s inventory plated 2024 or earlier.

“I was very transparent with (dealers) in laying out my understanding of the operational performance (and) financial performance of the dealer network,” she said.

“If we replicate what happened in 2024, we’ll lose a lot of dealers, and we need to rebuild the network rather than deplete it.

“We’re down to 110 dealers from where we were at 150.”

Ms Feuell said that while rebuilding and strengthening the dealer network by adding points needs to be a focus, the bigger priority is “getting the sales back on track”.

She also said it was imperative that Alfa Romeo “improved some of the quality issues” it has faced so that it can “shift away from a very high mix of warranty repairs back into customer-pay maintenance and light repair work”.

Locally, Alfa Romeo notched up just 561 sales in 2024, a downturn of 21.6 per cent on the year prior (716 units). The brand’s market share is currently sitting at just 0.04 per cent.

Across the 2024 calendar year, Alfa Romeo dealerships reported 190 Giulia registrations (up 3.3 per cent from 184 units), 246 Tonale registrations (down 32.6 per cent from 365 units), and 125 Stelvio registrations (down 25.1 per cent from 167 units).

2024 Alfa Romeo sales by model (Australia)*:

*Figures supplied courtesy of VFACTS.