Alfa Romeo is eager to improve customer satisfaction and the quality of vehicles it sells in the United States as it looks to grow its presence in the market.
The Italian car manufacturer will ditch all of its combustion-powered models in the United States by 2027 and while it wants to boost sales, it is focusing on much more than that, vice president of product planning and transformation for Alfa in North America, Vincent Noirbent, told Auto News.
Alfa Romeo wants to confirm its position as the global premium brand of Stellantis and its efforts are already proving successful. It recently topped the J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index and is eager to introduce the all-new Tonale plug-in hybrid in the second quarter of 2023.
Driven: 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Is Big On Style And Space, But Hybrid Needs Work
“Internally, we have our processes,” Noirbent said. “We work closely with our network, the factory, so we know where we’re going, we know where we’re headed, we see our [key performance indicators] increasing. Now you get that sort of reward. I mean, that was like the greatest reward you can have as a team. Now, when you’re No. 1, there’s only one way [to go], so it is never-ending. We need to make sure that next year we repeat that. We need to make sure that we perfect our processes.”
Speaking of the Tonale, Noirbent noted that the car manufacturer had originally intended on offering it in the U.S. with a conventional gasoline engine but has instead opted to only sell the plug-in hybrid version. Noirbent believes there is enough demand for this model alone and says Alfa Romeo will not play up the Tonale’s electrified powertrain in its marketing, instead aiming to simply sell it as a “true Alfa Romeo.”
Alfa Romeo North America boss Larry Dominique also wants to raise the brand’s image, South Miami Alfa Romeo-Fiat dealer owner Greg Travaline told Auto News.
Travaline said that Dominique “wants to make the cars right first, make the experience better and build the value of the brand, so somebody will pay an extra $100 a month. We have lagged on sales, but we hope eventually it’s going to turn full circle. We’ve got Tonale coming out. The future of Alfa — hopefully from there, it’s going to be bright.”
