Official: Alfa Romeo’s Bombastic Relaunch Has Been Delayed Until 2020

The Alfa Romeo stable is a curious thing right now. You have a couple of ageing, mediocre hatchbacks, and a paired-back, hardcore sports car. All that is set to change, of course, but not as quickly as originally hoped.

Autocar reports in a presentation to investors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has revealed that R&D, manufacturing and product investment will be “reduced through 2018”. What this means is the Italian brand’s new product line up - consisting of a total of eight cars including the new Giulia saloon - won’t be in place by 2018 as planned - instead we’ll have to wait until 2020, confirming earlier reports of a delay. It’s partly down to the slowdown of China’s economy.

Joining the Giulia by the end of the year will be a mid-size SUV, with the other models - including a hatchback, two more SUVs, a “full-size” saloon and two “speciality” cars - appearing between 2017 and 2020. Of particular interest is the hatchback, which is confirmed to use a modified version of the Giulia’s rear-wheel drive platform. That means as BMW’s 1-series switches over to front-wheel drive, the Alfa will take its place as the only current rear-drive C-segment hatch. Sounds good to us…