√Alfa Romeo 4C successor on the cards with electric power – executive
A senior Alfa Romeo executive has suggested an electric successor to the Alfa Romeo 4C sports car could be on the cards, but not until later this decade.
Italian car-maker Alfa Romeo has hinted at producing another ‘affordable’ sports car as a successor to the 4C – but this time it could be electric-powered.
And it would not arrive until the car maker builds a full showroom of more popular sedans and SUVs, on which the sports car can have a ‘halo effect’.
Alfa Romeo has previously announced its newly-introduced mainstream models will go electric-only from 2025, but its specialist, low-volume sports cars and supercars could hold onto petrol power until 2027.
Speaking to Australian media earlier this month, Daniel Guzzafame – the global head of product for Alfa Romeo – was asked whether the brand would consider building a ‘new’ 4C, and if the future sports car would have a bespoke carbon-fibre chassis like its predecessor.
“I think that [4C successor] will come,” Mr Guzzafame said.
“The big advantage of the carbon in the 4C was the overall weight and the overall package that was possible to reach. We are studying [what to do and we are in an advanced project phase for what is the next sport [car] platform application.
“Whether that [would include] carbon or not, at this stage, I don’t know – because we have two or three different options.
“On one side is the performance, on the other side, [is] the need of having electric power, and the third side to keep it at a decent cost, the affordability.”
However, Mr Guzzafame cautioned a 4C successor would be a number of years away, as the car maker needs to first build a showroom of more popular sedans and SUVs..
“The priority now is first to get the regular line-up. That kind of vehicle is the kind of vehicle that typically generates inflow in the showroom or online … and it’s perfectly useless to have a great inflow if you don’t have anything else to [sell],” he said.
Mr Guzzafame acknowledged a mistake made in the roll-out of the 4C, where – for the first few years of the car’s life – the only other vehicles in the company’s showrooms were the compact Mito and Giulietta hatchbacks.
“The problem [with] the brand at the moment of the 4C was that you went into a showroom, there was the 4C and then you looked around and there was nothing else,” the executive said.
“So that cannot happen, because if not, you are throwing away all of the positive collateral effect of having a car like that in your showrooms.”
Despite Mr Guzzafame’s comments suggesting the Alfa Romeo sports car would have electric power, the executive said there is a chance the company may not go down that route if batteries prove to be too heavy.
“With the carbon fibre monocoque on a car like a 4C, you can spare 40 to 50 kilograms – so [electric] makes perfect sense, if you have everything else that is of course fitting into that,” Mr Guzzafame said.
“If you are not optimising [the weight] before getting there, if you’re not optimising batteries, you end up with having a perfect carbon-fibre monocoque, but then you are adding 200 kilograms which are not needed somewhere else and so you are back from there.
“We know where we want to go, but at this stage we did, we have three different paths.”
An unsubstantiated report by UK publication Autocar has suggested the as-yet-unnamed sports car might not launch until 2027.
According to the report, styling cues from the recently-revealed 33 Stradale supercar could be adopted by the sports car – though it will may be underpinned by the same platform as the upcoming electric Giulia sedan.
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