Alfa Romeo Will Have 9 New Cars By 2021 And It's Going To Be Awesome

I’ll never forget walking over to Alfa Romeo’s stand at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few years ago, presented by the sorry sight of just two new cars populating it. Yep, up until very recently the entire Alfa Romeo range consisted of the iffy MiTo and Giulietta hatchbacks, and nothing else. It’s not much bigger now, but by 2021, the Alfa stable will be vastly different.

Having already provided a proper, 3-series-rivaling rear-wheel drive saloon in the form of the Giulia, Alfa will launch “up to nine” new cars in the next five years, reports Autocar. This prospect is on the horizon despite the Giulia’s own launch being delayed by around two years.

Speaking to Autocar, Alfa boss Reid Bigland said: “Our goal is absolutely to go toe to toe with the Germans, but that’s not a two-year plan…We’re just not going to get there that quickly. They’re in every segment and spinning derivatives off those segments.”

So, how exactly will Alfa go toe-to-toe with the Germans? SUVs are a big part of the answer. As Bigland points out: “Even with the new [Stelvio] SUV, we will only have 50 per cent coverage of the market,” so that means two additional SUVs, probably starting with a larger one to target the Audi Q7 and BMW X5.

But if you’re SUV-phobic, don’t worry: for starters, Bigland is promising that people will be “blown away by the driving dynamics” of the SUVs, and most importantly, there are plenty of non-SUV items on the menu.

The next Alfa Romeo to be launched after Stelvio is expected to be a Giulia ‘Sportwagon’ estate, which we’re rather hoping includes a hot Quadrifoglio version. A BMW 5-series rival could happen, but the high cost of adapting the Giulia’s Giorgio platform is apparently a stumbling block, particularly given that saloon sales have tanked in recent years.

A sports car is part of the plan - think a Brera successor that isn’t an overweight, underpowered, shabby handling turd - and there’ll be a VW Golf-battling Giulietta replacement too. There is still talk of that car being rear-wheel drive since the Giorgio platform can apparently work in a smaller configuration, but there’s still a question mark over what will underpin the car.

Which of Alfa’s incoming new arrivals are you most looking forward to?