Alfa Romeo US relaunch delayed

It’s being reported that Alfa Romeo has pushed back its plans to relaunch in the US because it really only has two models to offer

It’s getting on for two years since we reported that Alfa Romeo were going to relaunch themselves in the US after an absence of twenty years, to give Americans an Italian alternative to the likes of Audi, BMW and  Mercedes. A quality European alternative with Italian flair was the logic.

But within a month of the announcement that the US was to be beguiled by Alfas once more came the news that the MiTo wouldn’t be going on the American sojourn. Why, you may ask? It seems Fiat don’t think it worth the effort as not enough Americans would buy it. Despite them snapping up 50,000 MINIs every year.

Now we learn that Sergio Marchionne has declared that the Alfa relaunch is to be put back until 2013 because Alfa don’t have a broad enough range of cars to offer in the US. Which, again, hasn’t stopped MINI. But he does have a point.

If you exclude the MiTo on the already stated grounds it won’t sell enough, you’re pretty much left with the Giulietta. And the less than new 159. Because it seems Alfa quietly stopped making the GT, Brera and Spider at the end of 2010.

And the plans for the new Giulia have been pushed back by at least a year because Marchionne is said to be unhappy with its design, and we’re unlikely to see the Jeep-based Alfa Romeo SUV originally planned for 2012 for at least another couple of years.

None of which really augers well for the loss-making Alfa. Losses are said to have been stemmed a little, but are estimated to be running at €200 million a year, so launching in the US with just one model that really stacks up – the Giulietta – could just be a way to increase those losses rather than turn things round.

Or maybe, just maybe, the rumblings about VW and Alfa Romeo have substance.