The new chief executive of Alfa Romeo, Jean-Philippe Imparato, believes the quality of the Giulia and Stelvio are now on par with their German rivals.
Imparato is a PSA Group veteran and has been tasked with leading Alfa Romeo by Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares. Like Tavares, Imparato is looking to slash costs, as evidenced by the fact that the brand’s new global head office isn’t much larger than a tennis court.
During a recent interview with Auto News, Imparato talked about his passion for Alfa Romeo, stating that the company is matching its German rivals for quality. He now needs to ensure that residuals will be on par with the competition.
“I want our residual values to close the gap with out rivals in 3 to 4 years,” he said. To do so, Imparato says Alfa Romeo must not sell its vehicles “on the cheap.”
“I don’t want to see zero-kilometers [self-registrations by the automaker or its dealers] everywhere, nor import/export maneuvers.”
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Moving forward, Alfa Romeo is targeting a mix of 45 per cent private sales, 45 per cent fleet sales, and a maximum of 10 per cent in direct sales.
Under the leadership of the late Sergio Marchionne, Alfa Romeo wanted to boost its annual sales to over 400,000 vehicles. However, deliveries dropped to less than 60,000 in 2019 and 2020. Unlike Marchionne, Imparato will not publicly disclose its sales targets, even though he is heading up a five-year plan for the company.
“I will not make promises I can’t fulfill. At the end of each year we will unveil the following year’s program,” Imparato said.
Key to Alfa Romeo’s expansion will be the arrival of the Tonale SUV that will slot below the Stelvio in the brand’s range. Imparato recently tasked his team with improving the performance of the plug-in version of the car and insisted that it needs to be available from the beginning. As such, the SUV’s launch has been delayed and sales won’t commence until June 2022.
