Alfa Romeo Stelvio – Alfa's 1st SUV, designed to pack brand's spirit

1st Alfa Romeo SUV

The new-car market is already flooded with SUV choice, and now it is about to get even busier… and a lot more interesting.  The arrival of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio – Alfa Romeo’s 1st SUV – is the cause.

Why an Alfa Romeo SUV?  This is the direction the market is leading in.  As we buy more and more SUVs, car makers need to have products, like Maserati and Bentley who have recently joined this segment.  Now Alfa Romeo is a player here, too.

Encapsulates Alfa Romeo spirit

Part of the reason it took Alfa so long is that it wanted to be ready to launch not just another SUV, but an SUV as Alfa Romeo creation, being careful to pack what the brand has worked decades on to achieve – a sporty, emotionally-appealing vehicle.

The new Stelvio encapsulates the authentic Alfa Romeo spirit, incorporating the 5 ingredients that make it one of the world's most desirable brands on the automotive stage:

    1.    distinctly Italian styling

    2.    innovative, state-of-the-art engines

    3.    impeccable weight distribution

    4.    unique technical solutions

    5.    an outstanding power-to-weight ratio


Developed in Alfa Romeo's engineering centre in Modena, in the heart of Italy's Motor Valley, the Stelvio SUV will be manufactured in the recently overhauled Cassino plant, on a production line dedicated exclusively to the latest Alfa Romeo models, including the Giulia (which launched the brand into a new era in 2015).  The same ingredients, tailored to a new class of car, are now back in the ground-breaking Stelvio – it is designed to offer pure-bred Alfa Romeo sports styling, top-class performance and technical and technological equipment levels, and aims to be without equal in the premium small SUV segment.  No idle statement, that.

Stelvio… sounds familiar?

The Stelvio pass is the highest mountain pass in Italy, and the second highest in Europe.  The 20 km road that boasts over 75 bends, breath-taking views and a dizzyingly quick rise in altitude, all the way up to 2758 metres.  Over the years, champions of cycling and motorsport have done battle here, making the route a fully-fledged sporting legend.  

This winding road has now become a major tourist attraction.  To enjoy it as it is meant to be enjoyed and squeeze every last drop of pleasure out of this unique experience – by oneself in one’s Stelvio, or in the company of friends and family – there is only one SUV capable of offering an unrivalled combination of driving pleasure, Italian styling and versatility: that is the Alfa Romeo Stelvio.

Giulia paved way for Stelvio

The styling of the new Giulia (still to arrive in South Africa) carved a new design direction for Alfa Romeo.  Had the Stelvio been launched before the Giulia, perhaps the double shock of an Alfa SUV with all-new styling would have been too much, so the Stelvio now instantly resembles the new sports sedan’s designer basics.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio, like the Giulia (and many many Alfa Romeo cars before it), has clean contours and a full-bodied roundness… a sculptural shape. The “musculature” of the car's sides accentuates its front and rear wings, says Alfa.

Stelvio Quadrifoglio

From the outset, the Alfa Romeo SUV will be available with the 2.9-litre bi-turbo V6 of 375kW, in the Stelvio Quadrifoglio model.  An 8-speed sport-shifting automatic transmission is chosen for this.  This will be the high-performance model, taking aim at the Porsche Macan turbo.

Other engines will include a 2.0 turbo petrol and a diesel turbo.

Alfa DNA Pro

As an extension to the by-now-known Alfa DNA metal switch for the driver to select a driving mode, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is equipped with a new Alfa DNA Pro selector, which modifies the car's dynamic response according to which mode the driver selects: Dynamic, Natural, Advanced Efficiency (energy-saving mode) and Race (ideal for maximum performance).

Q4

The Stelvio Quadrifoglio mounts an innovative all-wheel drive system with Q4 technology (Q4 being a name Alfa used previously for its 4-wheel-driven cars), designed to manage drive distribution in real time, so as to deliver top-notch performance, efficiency and safety.

The Q4 system on Alfa Romeo's new SUV provides all the advantages of all-wheel drive, plus good fuel economy, responsive performance and the driving pleasure of a rear-wheel drive car.

Alfa Chassis Domain Control

The Alfa Chassis Domain Control (CDC) system acts as the "brain" of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio, and co-ordinates all the car's electronic systems.  It manages the operation of the various tech systems such as the new Alfa DNA Pro selector, the Q4 all-wheel drive, Alfa Torque Vectoring system, active suspension and the ESC, and optimises performance and driving pleasure.

For SA?

The Stelvio will become available on international markets in 2017, and hopes are high that it will arrive in South Africa so Alfisti here can have not just sporty hatches, coupés and roadsters, but also the appeal and practicality of an SUV… with an Alfa Romeo badge.