With the Tonale, Alfa Romeo's first new model since it launched the Stelvio midsize SUV in 2016, the Stellantis subsidiary is joining the compact SUV segment for the first time. In Europe alone, this segment accounts for 2.5 to 3 million sales a year, Alfa CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said, which is why he believes a successful launch of the Tonale could double Alfa's global volume to more than 100,000 by 2023. Imparato shared his sales outlook for the brand with Automotive News Europe Associate Publisher & Editor Luca Ciferri and Correspondent Andrea Malan.
How did Alfa Romeo perform in 2021?
Last year we delivered 55,000 cars worldwide, down from 63,300 in 2020. That figure included 14,400 units of the Giulietta compact hatchback, which we stopped making in late 2020, but still accounted for 4,800 sales last year. Remove the Giulietta from both years and we grew by 1,300 units last year to 50,200 units versus 2020. Europe accounted for 50 percent of our global sales, with half of that volume coming from Italy. A third of our global sales were in North America, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for the rest. In the D (midsize) segment, if we only count models powered by internal combustion engines -- which is what we currently offer on the Giulia and Stelvio -- our share was up everywhere, except China.