Fiat: “We would not sell Alfa even if we were offered tons of money,”

At the Auto Show in Detroit, Fiat chairman John Elkann said that they will never sell the Alfa Romeo brand. Elkann practically reiterated an earlier statement by Marchionne, who announced the same thing, but in another form.

This time, Elkann was direct and stated that Fiat won’t be selling Alfa Romeo not even for “tons of money,” meaning that they will do anything to relaunch the brand.

Alfa Romeo sales failed to reach the target of Marchionne’s profitability and the brand needs 300,000 units per year. At present, Alfa Romeo sells only 40% of that amount per year, but the Italians hope to recover this balance.

As specified by Sergio Marchionne, Alfa Romeo is part of Fiat Group’s operational area, and the investments made in this direction are too large to give them up.

Fiat officials have acknowledged that they had some quality problems in the brand, but hope to finally eliminate them for new models. With the Fiat-Chrysler alliance, Italy’s Alfa Romeo will sell the new cars in the US.

The first model will be Giulia, a midsize sedan that promises a lot. The Italians also have a drawback in terms of that model, regarding the factory in which it will be built. More specifically, the unions want to produce it at the Mirafiori plant, while Marchionne wants to produce the US version of the model in America to maintain a lower price.

Source: Autocar