Once you’ve experienced an Alfa Romeo, it’s impossible to overlook the mark that the emotional Italian machine leaves on you. And the 112-year-old brand is currently going through yet another reinvention, albeit for a proper reason: moving into the electric era. And with the company’s CEO having already confirmed that the mid-size Giulia sedan will get a battery-powered replacement, this independent rendering portrays such a machine.
Since its 2015 introduction, the Giulia has received tons of positive reviews for its dynamic character and outright beauty (this retromod links the modern machine to the 1962 Giulia for supercar money) . Alas, its downsides include below-average reliability and build quality, the kind of issues that have determined some of the Alfa Romeo brand reinventions in the past, albeit with limited results.
And while the Giulia, which represents the current form of the traditional Alfa performance sedan, still has a few years left, designers and engineers are currently hard at work developing the said EV replacement.
Alfa’s CEO has confirmed that the Giulia has a future as an EV
Now, while talking to Auto Express early last month, Alfa head honcho Jean-Philippe Imparato stressed the importance the three-volume body style has for the brand, while adding that the company will inevitably double down on its crossover/SUV efforts—currently, the latter genre is present in the Alfa range via the Giulia platform-sharing Stelvio and the smaller Tonale, which recently donated its chassis to the 2023 Dodge Hornet.
“Alfa Romeo will have a future for Giulia, and will do the job for SUVs too, because we are Chinese and we are American, but that shape of the Giulia is fantastic, I don’t want to lose this,“ the CEO explained.
“The car is absolutely gorgeous, so there is a future for this type of car, but it will be a future that will be electrified. It means probably 100 per cent full BEV [battery electric vehicle] for Alfa Romeo,” Imparato added.
The Giulia could evolve in a fastback sedan
However, during a chat with autocar that took place back in May, the CEO mentioned that the company is considering the needs of wagon fans. And while the number of those who don’t just discuss wagons online, but actually buy them, continues to remain low, it looks like Alfa may have figured out a way to look past the market’s ever-increasing thirst for SUVs.
“It’s in Alfa’s DNA to have a sporty sedan. But I also acknowledge that there were many suggestions that there should be a station wagon version of the Giulia. Maybe there’s a tipping point between the sedan and the station wagon. With a new Giulia, maybe we can have the best of both worlds,” the head honcho stated.
To us, this sounds like the battery-powered replacement of the Giulia could use a fastback sedan body style. After all, Dodge used a somewhat similar approach when presenting its first battery-animated muscle car last week, the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT. Now, the 2024 production version of the Charger will share the STLA Large platform with the upcoming electric Giulia.
A larger, E-Segment sedan isn’t out of the question
However, a more recent report from autocar mentions Imparato talking about the need for Alfa Romeo to enter the E-segment (the Giulia is a D-segment car). And with a sedan once again mentioned, this path would involve Alfa Romeo launching an electric Giulia replacement and a larger battery-powered sedan.
However, given the said SUV craze, this may not be feasible, so perhaps the Italian automaker will simply replace the Giulia with a machine casting a more generous shadow. Regardless, we’ll remind you that Alfa Romeo plans to only sell EVs by 2027, so there will be plenty of room in its lineup for SUVs.
This independent next-gen Giulia rendering involves familiar Italian bits
Given the said variables regarding the size and the design of the Giulia electric replacement, this rendering goes with the familiar while integrating these clues.
As such, digital artist Theottle used the larger Maserati Ghibli as a starting point for the pixel work. And when it came to the styling details, the pixel master borrowed Alfa’s most recent styling language by adopting design elements from the Tonale crossover.
Nowadays, efficiency dominates the car industry, from electric range dictating less styling concessions to a reduced number of models. As such, a brand like Alfa Romeo has the power to deliver a breath of fresh air and we’re eager to see the company bring its contribution to the electric car world.
