Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV FINALLY arrives as an Alfa Giulia on stilts

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio – Alfa’s first SUV – has been revealed at the Los Angeles Motor Show in range-topping Quadrifoglio form as it follows the new Guilia to market.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV – named after the Stelvio Pass in the Italian Alps (a stunning drive) – has finally been revealed at the Los Angeles Motor Show as Alfa’s pitch at a piece of the ‘Premium’ SUV market – think Porsche Macan.

In fact, in terms of size, the Stelvio is about the same length as the Macan (although it’s a chunk chubbier), and in Quadrifoglio guise, as debut in LA, it sports the very appealing 503bhp Ferrari-developed V6 from the Giulia clearly aiming to take on the Macan Turbo.

Just as Alfa did with the Giulia, the Stelvio hots showroom floors in its most appealing, and most expensive, guise, and does look just like Alfa has taken the Giulia and stuck it on stilts. Which they effectively have.

Using basically the same platform as the Giulia, the Stelvio, however, comes with an all-wheel drive system with torque vectoring, with the cheaper models following the Giulia’s path with a 2.0-litre petrol and 2.2-litre diesel engines, but it looks like there will also be a 2.0 litre petrol with 276bhp – perhaps a Stelvio Veloce? – and eight-speed auto boxes.

As you’d expect, the interior of the Stelvio looks familiar if you’ve been near a Giulia, complete with a 6.5″ touchscreen (8.8″ also available) and decent spec including leather, adaptive cruise, blind spot and other monitoring, parking sensors and cameras. Although it all depends on the spec you choose,k specs likely to be Stelvio, Technica, Speciale, Veloce and Quadrifoglio.

Alfa hasn’t revealed prices, but it seems likely the Stelvio will start in the high £30k range and head up from there, perhaps getting close to £60k at the Quadrifoglio end – just a bit cheaper all round than the Porsche Macan – when it arrives in the UK next summer.