This new model will launch in 2026 or 2027, so long as the brand’s sales continue to improve.
The squared-off SZ from thirty years ago will be the inspiration for the new coupe.
The company’s design chief says working with EVs is more difficult than with gasoline-powered models.
The upcoming Alfa Romeo electric coupe is likely to be inspired by the SZ, a distinctive sports car sold in Europe between 1989 and 1991.
This is according to Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, the company’s design chief who was interviewed by Autocar.
Alfa Romeo has a strong heritage in design which it regularly uses to influence its new models, but by the designer’s own admission, the SZ wasn’t the brand’s best design.
Indeed, the brutalist coupe’s squared-off lines and high beltline were a departure from the curves and proportions of Alfa’s traditional sports cars.
Despite this, Mesonero-Romanos says there is a lot that can be taken from the SZ and modernized, such as its wedge profile and its dark glasshouse.
As with the SZ, this could help this new model stand out from the brand’s other products, even more so since a low-volume sports car to be unveiled later this year is said to be inspired by the famously curvy 33 Stradale.
This decision to stray away from what the brand has been doing recently in terms of design could also be a result of the constraints imposed by the automaker’s skateboard EV platform which includes the battery and the motors in a single layer that can be installed under the body.
Unlike many other automotive designers, notably from Porsche, Mesonero-Romanos believes that styling electric vehicles is harder than gasoline-fueled ones since the long wheelbase and the body height needed to accommodate the batteries mess with the proportions of the body.
Few details are known about this new model which is planned for a debut somewhere in 2026-2027 at the moment, except that it can best be described as a Giulia coupe, even if it doesn’t end up sharing much in terms of appearance with the compact sedan.
In keeping with tradition, this means we can expect to see this upcoming coupe named GTV or Alfetta, but the automaker has yet to confirm one or the other.
Source: Autocar
