Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV
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.
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 276 hp 2.0-liter turbo’d gasoline four and a 210 hp 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.
