No matter where you live, all you have to do is look around you and see what kind of cars are parked on the road to see why Alfa Romeo’s first SUV is such a big deal for the company’s future.
Earlier this year, Fiat-Chrysler Automobile (FCA) boss Sergio Marchionne named the SUV Stelvio after the famed Italian Alpine pass, while also placing its introduction for late 2017.
In the meantime, Alfa Romeo engineers have moved on from hacked Fiat 500L mules to prototypes that appear to be wearing bodies that more closely resemble the production car’s shape under all that heavy camouflage, and which seem to confirm a coupe-like roofline.
The Stelvio will share its bones with the new Giulia sedan, while borrowing some components from other upcoming Fiat and Jeep medium-sized SUVs. Alfa’s model will be more performance orientated offering a similar mix of four-cylinder and V6 engines as the Giulia, including a 276hp 2.0-liter turbo’d gasoline four and a 210hp 2.2-liter diesel four a V6 diesel.
There will also be a Quadrifoglio Verde version with the same twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 gasoline engine as the Giulia flagship producing as much as 503 horses with standard all-wheel drive that will go after BMW’s rumored X3 M and Mercedes’ upcoming GLC 63 AMG, and possibly even Porsche’s Macan.
Alfa’s Stelvio SUV is one of many new models that the Italians want to release over the next four years, the others being a full-size luxury sports sedan, two crossovers, two specialty cars and a hatchback, if everything goes to plan – but that’s a very big “if” given Marchionne’s tendency to overpromise and under deliver.
Photo Credits: CarPix for CarScoops
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