Alfa Romeo is the latest manufacturer to backtrack on its goal of becoming an EV-only carmaker, a target that the Italian brand had previously set out to achieve by 2027, reported Automotive News.
Citing Alfa Romeo North America head Chris Feuell, a move to force dealers to sell only electric vehicles in just a few years’ time would be too restrictive. “We have 110 dealers in our United States network, and it would be very challenging for them to survive with a BEV-only portfolio,” Feuell said to the publication at the 2025 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) show.
According to the Alfa Romeo North America chief, the Italian brand sustained a drop in sales of 38% in the fourth quarter of last year and 19% overall in 2024, arriving at a loss for the fourth consecutive year, and the brand’s North American dealer network has shrunk to the aforementioned 110 outlets, down from 150 outlets previously.
The Italian brand has foregone the EV-only approach for the North American market in favour of a ‘multi-energy’ strategy that includes petrol, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles in its portfolio. Former Alfa Romeo CEO, Jean-Philippe Imparato was also cited as saying recently that the brand could offer a more diverse powertrain offering, including petrol engines for the longer term if there was customer demand.
In addition to losses sustained by Alfa Romeo, the brand also faces the issue of slow-moving inventory in North America, as analysis by CarEdge found that the Giulia is the slowest-selling car in the United States as of September, when it had an inventory supply of 617 days. Its SUV sibling, the Stelvio was the third-slowest selling, with 454 days of inventory.
A key priority for the brand is to get sales “back on track and improving some of the quality issues that we’ve had in the product so they can shift away from a very high mix of warranty repairs back into customer-paying maintenance and light repair work,” Feuell said.
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