2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti on 2040-cars

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Alfa Romeo flagship EV due in 2027 with 18-minute recharge time

Last July, Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato said his Italian concern would develop a new battery-electric vehicle in the U.S. that would launch here in 2027. It would take the new top spot in the lineup, being larger than the Stelvio, full of tech and full of performance. During the launch of the Tonale in Japan, the boss shared provisional specs of the "high-performance SUV" with Automotive News Europe. The pack of some unknown size would juice motors putting out from 300 to 800 horsepower in the standard range, and around 1,000 horsepower in a Quadrifoglio trim. Here's the big stat: In ANE's words, an 800-volt architecture would enable "recharging times of 18 minutes max, [Imparato] said." We'd sure like to know the qualifications required to get an 18-minute charge. Porsche advertises the Taycan's 93.4-kWh Performance Battery Plus as being able to go from 5% state-of-charge to 80% in 22.5 minutes when the sedan's been optioned with the $460 On-Board DC Charger. Naturally, that's under ideal conditions and when plugged into a charger that can feed the Taycan at its max 270-kW rate. When veteran hypermiler Wayne Gerdes took a Taycan across the U.S. in five days, he said his first charge at a 350-kW Electrify America unit took 22 minutes to get the battery from 6% to 82%. Knowing that the initial few percent and those last 20% take longer than the meaty bit in the middle, we going to guess Imparato's time assessment leaves out the time-consuming portions of charging the battery near empty and close to full. But hey, four years is a long way away in the EV-verse.  The CEO said the Alfa Romeo will compete with the BMW X5, a crossover almost exactly ten inches longer than the Stelvio (pictured), which is currently the largest product in the portfolio and the best-seller in the U.S. The Italian might not share a traditional CUV shape with the German, Imparato having said that aerodynamic needs could lead to a shape between a sedan and a crossover. If things are on track in Milan, executives approved the design before the end of 2022.  We'll begin to see what Alfa Romeo's EV-only future when the brand's first dedicated EV shows in 2025. Related video:

Everything we know about the Alfa Romeo Stelvio

Alfa Romeo is working rapidly on putting a crossover onto the road and these latest awkwardly-shaped spy shots are our best look at the upcoming Stelvio. Crossovers and compact SUVs are still outrageously popular with Americans and Alfa Romeo wants in on the ever-growing segment. The upcoming Stelvio, then, would make Alfa more profitable and make the storied brand once again a household name. Here's an overview of everything we know about the Stelvio. October 24, 2016: A moderately-camouflaged Stelvio is spotted testing in broad daylight with minimal updates. The most recent prototype has three strangely-shaped ridges on the hood, while the headlights and taillights, despite being taped off, still appear to be taken straight from the Giulia sedan. The profile mimics that of the Porsche Macan with the bulbous rear end gaining massive exhaust tips. View 12 Photos October 11, 2016: Photographers captured a lightly-camouflaged Stelvio testing in Europe at night, giving us our best look at the SUV's design. The front of the vehicle shares the same front fascia design as the Giulia sedan with two oval-shaped inlets on the side and the automaker's iconic rounded-triangle grille. The headlights also appear to be the same slit-like units on the Giulia, as well. The side profile of the SUV portrays a rounder design than displayed on previous prototypes that photographers have spotted. At the rear, two small tail pipes protrude out of the vehicle, while the taillights appear to be similar to the Giulia's, too. Unsurprisingly, the Stelvio looks comparable to a Giulia on stilts. View 7 Photos June 28, 2016: A prototype of the Stelvio is spotted wearing a massive amount of camouflage, making the shape and overall design of the SUV hard to discern. Again, the automaker's well-known front end is easy to spot, as are the two large exhaust outlets at the back. The rear end, though, features an interesting, rakish design that is more in line with a Sportback than a SUV. Photographers also managed to get pictures of the SUV's interior, which featured birch-like wood, an integrated screen, and large paddle shifters behind the thick steering wheel. Just like on the Giulia, the start-stop button is mounted directly onto the steering wheel. View 10 Photos April 7, 2016: The Alfa Romeo Stelvio is spotted testing for the first time. Alfa Romeo was caught testing a heavily-camouflaged prototype of the Stelvio wearing an insane amount of unsightly black plastic.

Alfa Romeo Giulia is going electric

In an interview with Auto Express, Alfa Romeo's CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato revealed a bunch of details about the future of the company and electric vehicles. But the most interesting is that, despite the world's insatiable appetite for SUVs, the Giulia sport sedan will get another generation, and one that's entirely electric. Apparently, the car will be built on the STLA Large platform, one of several EV architectures Stellantis announced back July. Considering that there will be STLA Small and STLA Medium platforms, we're a little surprised that Alfa would go with the big option, since the current Giulia isn't particularly big. It could be that Alfa is aiming for particularly long range from the next Giulia, and maybe even more interior space. We bring up range because the Large platform is said to accept 101-kWh to 118-kWh of battery capacity and up to 500 miles of range. It may also be sharing the platform and development with the future Stelvio, like the current one does with the Giorgio platform. Imparato also talked a bit about the high-performance Quadrifoglio models. The company is definitely still open to them in the electric era, but only if they can make them perform the way they want. That seems unlikely to be an issue for a couple of reasons. One, Imparato told Auto Express that the man who helped develop the Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA is on the team developing STLA Large. The other is that Stellantis has a wild range of motors planned. At the low end will be 94-horsepower motors, but at the other will be 402-horsepower units. There should be a pairing in there that finds a good balance between raw power and finesse, especially when just one makes around 80% of the power of the current Quadrifoglio's twin-turbo V6. Stellantis aims to have its 500-mile STLA Large platform cars, among the others, ready for 2024. Odds seem good that the electric Alfas will start showing up at that time, since the brand is planning to be fully electric in 2027. That will make it the first Stellantis brand to be entirely electric. Related Video: 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid powertrain feature walkthrough | Autoblog