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Alfa Romeo Stelvio Utility Vehicle Spy Shots | Autoblog Minute

Latest spy shots of Alfa Romeo's utility vehicle, the Stelvio. Alfa Romeo SUV Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video alfa romeo stelvio

Stellantis tells UK: Change Brexit deal or watch car plants close

LONDON - British car plants will close with the loss of thousands of jobs unless the Brexit deal is swiftly renegotiated, Stellantis has told the UK parliament, the latest in a series of warnings from the industry since the country left the European Union. The world's No. 3 carmaker by sales and owner of 14 brands including Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat said that under the current deal it would face tariffs when exporting electric vans to Europe from next year, when tougher post-Brexit rules come into force. "If the cost of EV (electric vehicle) manufacturing in the UK becomes uncompetitive and unsustainable, operations will close," Stellantis said in a submission to a House of Commons committee examining the prospects for Britain's EV industry. Stellantis urged the government to reach an agreement with the European Union about extending the current rules on the sourcing of parts until 2027 instead of the planned 2024 change. In response, a government spokesperson said the business secretary had raised the issue with the EU. "Watch this space, because we are very focused on making sure that the UK gets EV and manufacturing capacity," Britain's finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Wednesday at a British Chambers of Commerce event. The potentially existential problem facing Britain's car industry is closely tied to the shift to EVs. Under the trade deal agreed when Britain left the bloc, 45% of the value of an EV being sold in the European Union must come from Britain or the EU from 2024 to avoid tariffs. The problem is that a battery pack can account for up to half a new EV's cost. Batteries are also heavy and expensive to move long distances. Experts have been warning since Britain left the EU at the end of 2020 that the country would need a number of EV battery gigafactories or potentially lose a hefty chunk of its car industry. Only Japan's Nissan has a small EV battery plant in Sunderland, with a second one on the way. Cost of failure Britishvolt, a startup which received UK government support for an ambitious 3.8 billion pound ($4.80 billion) battery plant at a site in northern England, filed for administration in January after struggling to raise funds. The company was then bought by Australia's Recharge Industries, which has yet to unveil plans for the site.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio caught hiding under ugly black camouflage

The vehicle you see here, bedecked as it is in camo-shaped warts and baubles, is the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Behind all that ungainly black plastic hides a jacked-up crossover based on the bones of the upcoming Gulia sedan, which, painfully, we're still waiting to officially launch. Suffice it to say that we're not expecting to see a production version of the Stelvio until much later in 2016. Up front, the well-established rounded-triangle grille that marks the Alfa Romeo marque comes through loud and clear... though it looks a little bit sickly covered in all that cladding. We're sure it'll be appropriately prettied up for production, and we're equally certain the slit-like headlamp cutouts are hiding stylish swept-back lighting units. We can't make out much of the Stelvio's bodysides, but we see some nicely aggressive rolling stock to go along with what appears to be a pretty steeply raked greenhouse. View 10 Photos That incongruously shaped chunk hanging off the back glass was likely tacked on to hide the shape of the actual tailgate, and perhaps there are some sensors or computers hanging around inside the box to feed more data to engineers. There's no telling what's powering this Stelvio mule, but it could be a version of the 2.9-liter, 505-horsepower, twin-turbo V6 that we can't wait to sample in the Guilia Quadrifoglio Verde. For production, expect four- and six-cylinder options, in both gasoline and diesel flavors, depending on where the car is sold. We can clearly see the Stelvio is out on the road, generating test miles ahead of a hoped-for release in early 2017. The next logical question, then, is this: Will Alfa Romeo actually launch the Stelvio on time? Related Video: Image Credit: Brian Williams/Spiedbilde Spy Photos Alfa Romeo Crossover Future Vehicles alfa romeo stelvio