Alfa Romeo Drops It’s Giorgio Architecture For Next Generation Models:

The Alfa Romeo brand has been making a lot of headlines lately, as the brand is in the middle of a reinvention. According to a report from Automotive News Europe, the Italian automaker’s new CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato told Italian journalists during a roundtable event that it will be dropping the brand’s award-winning unibody rear-wheel-drive ‘Giorgio’ architecture that currently underpins the Giulia and Stelvio. The brand will switch to the recently announced ‘STLA Large’ architecture which will underpin D & E-Segment unibody crossovers, SUVs, and cars, including the next-generation Dodge Charger and Challenger.

Imparato, who became the brand’s CEO in January, has made a 30-year career for himself at the PSA side of the newly formed Stellantis group. He comes to the Italian brand looking to expand the brand worldwide and has made it no secret that he sees electrification as key for the brand’s survival going into the future. That includes delaying the highly-anticipated 2022 Alfa Romeo Tonale by three months, telling engineers he wants them to deliver better performance from the vehicle’s plug-in hybrid (PHEV) system.

“We are working on the Large platform of Stellantis and we will no longer use the Giorgio,” Imparato said. “We must take advantage of the volumes to take all possible opportunities and bring an EV range to Alfa Romeo, but always with the touch of Alfa Romeo.”

The Giorgio architecture was developed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) for about £800 million and was designed for a variety of vehicles. The architecture was designed to help reduce costs for the company’s rear-wheel-drive-oriented vehicles while providing world-leading driving dynamics. ven though the architecture was developed with all-wheel-drive (AWD) capability, there will only be four nameplates (Giulia, Stelvio, Grand Cherokee, and Grecale) that will adapt the architecture for use.

The new Stellantis STLA Large architecture will host internal combustion engines (ICE), mild-hybrid electric vehicles (mHEV), PHEV vehicles, and battery-electric vehicles (BEV). It is expected that the next-generation Giulia and Stelvio will debut in late 2024, as 2025 models. The first vehicles using the new STLA Large architecture are due to arrive in late 2023.

Stellantis will hold a meeting in July to discuss more in-depth details about its new electrification plans.

Source: Auto News Europe