Alfa Romeo seems to have a very specific goal in mind during its planning for a return to the luxury car market — take on BMW. The brand-new Alfa Romeo Giulia that’s been garnering rave reviews and making headlings is aimed directly at the BMW 3 Series. It even has a high-performance, range-topping Quadrifoglio Verde variant that competes directly with the BMW M3.
But Alfa Romeo isn’t stopping there, as there’s now word that the Italian brand will be developing a new luxury car to take the BMW 5 Series head on.
According to Auto Express, Fiat/Chrysler Chief Technology Officer, Harald Wester, said that the Alfa Romeo brand will be bringing in new vehicles to compete with the Germans. “We owe our investors a constant stream of new, fresh global products that can be sold,” said Wester. “It will be a relatively fast sequence of relevant and saleable products like saloons and SUVs.”
Auto Express also claims that an Alfa Romeo 5 Series-fighter is currently in the works and will be built on the current rear-wheel drive Alfa Romeo Giulia platform. They even have some renders of what it will look like, most likely. We don’t own those renders so you can check them out here.
This Alfa Romeo 5 Series-fighter will share many of the powertrains of the current Giulia, meaning that a range of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines will be available. However, it will also get some of its own engine options, including a six-cylinder diesel. The 503 hp 2.9 liter twin-turbo V6, from the Alfa Romeo Giulia QV, is also said to make an appearance in this bigger Alfa, likely to compete with the BMW 550i.
Those engines will almost certainly be mated to the ZF-sourced eight-speed auto currently found in the Giulia, and a manual option is unlikely. Expect rear and all-wheel drive to be available, as well as a suite of technology options to stay competitive in the segment.
We already learned that Alfa Romeo is also planning an SUV, currently named the Stelvio after the famous Stelvio Pass. This BMW 5 Series-fighter will likely follow the Stelvio SUV and give Alfa Romeo a nicely rounded lineup of vehicles to compete with the Germans, as it will have one “compact” executive sedan, one mid-size executive sedan, an SUV and a hardcore sports car, with the 4C. Alfa Romeo is certainly serious about taking BMW head on and this is just more proof that the brand from Turin isn’t messing around.
[Source: Auto Express]
