Alfa Romeo SUV/Crossover: To be built alongside a Jeep - in Italy
Fiat are to build an Alfa Romeo SUV and a replacement for ther Jeep Patriot/Compass at their Mirifiori plant in Turin.
Hot on the heels of the news that there is going to be a Maserati SUV comes confirmation from Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne that our story back in June that there will be an Alfa Romeo SUV sharing its underpinnings with a Jeep is correct. But unlike the Maserati SUV – which is being built alongside the Jeep Grand Cherokee in the US – this Alfa Romeo SUV will be built in Italy – alongside a new Jeep (we reckoned it would be built in the US. Well, we can’t be right all the time!).
The new SUVs will be built side-by-side at Fiat’s Mirifiori plant in Turin where a €1 billion revamp is planned. The investment in Fiat’s Italian plants should help to quell the growing unease from the Italian unions, who see Fiat’s involvement with Chrysler as a threat to jobs in Italy.
And as Italian unions can best be compared to French farmers, it’s probably worth appeasing them if the costs to do so are negligible and it brings sensible concessions to help make the Fiat/Chrysler partnership/takeover a success.
The platform for both the Alfa Rome SUV and the Jeep (which will replace the Compass and Patriot) is expected to be a version of Fiat’s Compact-Wide platform, which will also underpin the new Alfa Romeo Guilia – the replacement for the Alfa 159.
Both cars are expected to arrive by the end 2012, but don’t expect them to be proper SUVs. These will be softroaders.
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