Alfa Romeo Giulia, Stelvio survive to 2027 as replacements delayed
Alfa Romeo will keep selling the Giulia and Stelvio through to 2027 – including the 513bhp Quadrifoglio range-toppers – as it rethinks its plan to replace them with pure-electric successors.
Based on the then-new Giorgio platform, the saloon and SUV siblings were introduced in 2015 and have been only lightly updated since then. This makes them among the market’s oldest cars, raising questions about their ongoing viability, particularly given the need to comply with costly new European emissions and safety regulation.
Alfa Romeo has also shifted focus to the more volume-friendly Tonale and Junior crossovers in the last three years, with the need for an increasingly electrified offering dictating its product strategy – but UK boss Jules Tilstone has confirmed to Autocar that the pure-petrol Giulia and Stelvio can continue.
“Eighty per cent of the [UK] market is still ICE,” he said. “People are looking for fun-to-drive performance ICE cars, and the Giulia and Stelvio offer that in spades.
“Look at the Giulia: you can’t get away from the fact that it’s a timeless D-segment saloon – and it is still stunning.”
Tilstone confirmed that the pair will continue to be offered with a 270bhp four-cylinder petrol engine as standard and added: “We’re also bringing back the Quadrifoglio versions of both the Giulia and Stelvio.”
The V6 performance versions were taken out of production in September but will start running down the line again at Alfa’s factory in Cassino, Italy, from April 2026.
It is unconfirmed whether either engine needed extensive modifications to comply with incoming Euro 7 emissions rules, but Tilstone said “the powertrains will be effectively the same”.
The news that the petrol Stelvio will continue for the foreseeable comes as Alfa Romeo delays the second generation of the SUV until 2027, Autocar understands.
The next Stelvio was originally due to arrive next year as an EV-only rival to the Porsche Macan Electric and Alpine A390, but faltering demand for electric premium and sporting models has prompted a rethink, and the car is understood to now be in line for a multi-powertrain offering, including some form of electrified combustion system.
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The new Stelvio is based on Stellantis’s new STLA Large platform, which so far has only been used for the US-market Dodge Charger muscle car, available with either electric power or a conventional petrol straight six. It is unclear whether Alfa is looking to electrify that engine for use in the Stelvio.
The move will also impact the next Giulia, which will be closely related to the Stelvio. Alfa Romeo had yet to give any concrete plans for a launch date for that car but had released some preliminary power figures for the EV version – including a 1000bhp range-topper – and it was not thought to be far behind the Stelvio.
Tilstone remained committed to increasing Alfa Romeo’s EV sales in the UK (currently 30% of sales of its best-selling Junior are for the EV) but said he doesn’t “have a concern about the EV mix” even with the pure-petrol models continuing.
“Everyone is talking about the transition to full electric because of the [UK’s] ZEV mandate and the importance of transitioning,” he said, but it’s important that Alfa Romeo continues to offer the Stelvio and Giulia for the foreseeable as “jewels in the crown of our range”.
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