The Alfa Romeo Giulietta will cease to be manufactured this year permanently. Manufactured in the Cassino factory (Southern Italy), the Giulietta will leave room for the production of two new SUVs. One of them will be the Alfa Romeo Tonale, a plug-in hybrid SUV unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, and the other will be a new model for Maserati, developed on the Giorgio platform, and which would be positioned under the Levante.
Alfa Romeo had already been prepared, reducing production to 40 units a day instead of the 70 units a day that were manufactured in 2019. And the demand for the Italian compact has never been so low. In 2019, only 15,000 units of the Giulietta were sold.
In principle, the cessation of production should be effective by the end of year, but given the situation of confinement, the temporary closure of factories and the uncertainty about subsequent demand, it is possible that the Giulietta line will not resume and its production terminated.
The Giulietta hole will be filled in 2021 by the Alfa Romeo Tonale, and also by the new Maserati SUV, for which FCA has invested more than 800 million euros in its development and the adaptation of the Cassino plant for its manufacture. Later, in 2022, Alfa Romeo would have a third SUV in its range, this time it would be a smaller model, in segment B. This new Italian SUV would face the SEAT Arona, Volkswagen T-Cross to the Audi Q2 and Mercedes-Benz GLA. At least that is the intention of Alfa Romeo.
The Giulietta was introduced in 2010 as a rival to the Volkswagen Golf and Audi A3. And although it had some success in the first years, the model was lagging behind in terms of technology and especially image.
The years passed and the model only received timid restyling, while the public went to SUVs and the competition in the compact segment was getting stronger. The arrival of the SEAT León , Peugeot 308 and Ford Focus , have finished off the Giulietta in Europe, whose main market – if not almost unique – was still Italy.
In any case, once the merger between FCA and PSA is effective, there is no doubt that the new management of the group will have new plans for the Cassino factory and the Alfa Romeo brand.
