Alfa Romeo to drop Giulietta hatchback in Europe

Alfa Romeo will phase out production of the Giulietta compact hatchback by the end of this year, a top manager for the brand told a U.K. magazine.

The Giulietta "is expected to finish its life at the end of this year," Fabio Migliavacca, Alfa's head of product marketing, told Autocar.

The hatchback will be replaced in Alfa Romeo’s lineup by the Tonale, a compact crossover, he said, noting that the sales mix in the compact segment is toward SUVs and crossovers.

Alfa Romeo is focused on ensuring that the Tonale, expected to be launched in 2021, has the same handling dynamics as the Giulietta despite being a crossover, Migliavacca said.

“We don’t expect driving dynamics to be a weak point for the Tonale,” he said.

An Alfa Romeo spokesman confirmed to Automotive News Europe that the Giulietta would not be replaced but said there was no date for the end of the model’s production.

The Giulietta was not included in Alfa Romeo’s future brand plans unveiled late last year, which include the Tonale in 2021; midcycle updates of the Giulia midsize sedan and Stelvio midsize SUV, also planned for next year; and a small crossover in 2022.

The Giulietta, launched in 2010, has struggled to find customers in recent years. According to data from JATO Dynamics, Europe registrations fell 42 percent last year to 15,525, with 9,736 (63 percent) in Italy. Giulietta sales peaked in 2011, with 78,911 deliveries.

The Giulietta also comes with an emissions penalty, as automakers try to meet 2020-21 European Union targets of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. It is currently offered with a 1.4-liter gasoline engine that emits 157 g/km and two diesel engines, with emissions that start from 118 g/km. There are no electrified options, while most competitors in the segment are offering a variety of mild hybrid, conventional hybrid or plug-in hybrid choices. 

According to JATO, sales of compact hatchbacks fell by 4.5 percent in Europe last year to 2,163,768 from 2,266,769 in 2018. Sales of compact SUVs and crossovers increased 8 percent to 2,090,273 from 1,936,078 in 2018.

The Tonale was unveiled in concept form at the 2019 Geneva auto show. It will be the brand’s first plug-in hybrid, with a drivetrain similar to the planned Jeep Compass plug-in hybrid. Migliavacca told Autocar that although the plug-in hybrid Tonale will have commonalities with its Jeep stablemate, it will be a distinct model.

“For the performance side of things, it will be an Alfa Romeo,” he said.

The Giulietta is built at FCA’s plant in Cassino, Italy. The plant also assembles the Giulia midsize sedan and Stelvio midsize crossover; a midsize Maserati SUV on the same platform will be added in 2021.

FCA is expected to spend almost 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to start production of the Tonale and a hybrid version of the Panda minicar at the Pomigliano factory near Naples, Italy.

Work to reconfigure and retool the factory was scheduled to start at the beginning of this year.

Tonale production was expected to begin in the first half of 2021, but that timetable is likely to be affected by a government-imposed lockdown on nonessential industry to combat the spread of the coronavirus that has been in place since mid-March.

Preparations for the Tonale are not among activities FCA plans to resume immediately after the coronavirus lockdown is lifted, unions said.