Future Alfa Romeo vehicles to compete with Volkswagen, claims CEO

Harald Wester, Alfa Romeo's newly appointed chief made it clear in an interview. Wester clarified that the direct competitors of Alfa Romeo are not going to be BMW or Audi but Volkswagen only.

Wester is currently working to increase the appeal of the Alfa Romeo brand, especially among female customers. This repositioning of the brand is aimed at increasing annual sales volume and launch new models. Among the new models, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) play a central role and the company plans to increase production of the SUVs between 80,000 and 100,000 units every year.

Alfa Romeo has underperformed in recent times, just managing to sell around one third of the planned units in 2009. However, its parent Fiat remains confident of sweeping the markets with the introduction of new models. Alfa Romeo as a brand certainly takes centre stage in Fiat's midterm strategy.

Fiat expects the brand's sales to increase from 100,000 units to 500,000 units every year. New variants of MiTo and Giulietta and Giulia C- and D-segment models in the next couple of years are expected to drive the sales up. In addition, Alfa Romeo might just re-enter the North American market once again.

With this transition, Alfa Romeo will move from being a niche producer to become a mass-market brand with products in the big volume segments. In due course of time, Alfa Romeo might also get additional help from Fiat which is planning cross branding of some of its vehicles in Europe and North America.

After acquiring Chrysler last year, Fiat's long harboured plan of becoming a dominant player in the global market might become a reality.