Fiat SpA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne's plan to revive the Alfa Romeo brand in the U.S. may get a boost from a new hatchback in Europe.
At the Geneva auto show this week, Alfa Romeo will unveil the Giulietta, created for Europe to replace the Alfa 147 introduced 10 years ago. With its sculpted rear, rounded triangular headlights and a selection of five turbocharged engines, the model will become the basis of a new larger sedan for the U.S., possibly in 2012.
Alfa Romeo is 190,000 cars short of an annual target of 300,000 to make money and Marchionne said in January that he's reviewing the 100-year-old brand. The Giulietta may help accelerate Alfa Romeo's return to the U.S., the world's most profitable luxury-car market, as the brand examines plans to make vehicles with Fiat partner Chrysler Group LLC, said Andrew Close, a London-based analyst at IHS Global Insight.
"The beauty of America is that even a niche car can still have volume," said Close, a specialist in powertrain, in a phone interview. "Alfa probably has the biggest opportunity of all the Fiat brands to assert its premium position in the U.S. market, which could help them climb out of the hole that they're in."
Turin, Italy-based Fiat in January appointed Harald Wester, the automaker's technology chief and CEO of the Maserati and Abarth brands, to run Alfa Romeo. Wester may use Maserati's dealer network to bolster Alfa Romeo's premium positioning, Close said.
Audi, Mercedes-Benz
At stake is Fiat's ability to compete with Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG's Audi, brands that Marchionne has said Alfa Romeo isn't keeping up with. The Giulietta will compete with cars including VW's Golf and the BMW 1-Series from Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.
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