US presidential victory could change Alfa Romeo’s electric vehicle strategy

Alfa Romeo is waiting to see the outcome of the 2024 US election in November before deciding on its long-term product strategy, with the result threatening several models – including an electric fastback SUV.

Automotive News Europe reports Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato told media product plans may change if the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, takes office for a second time.

The Republican party has been opposed to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRL), California’s 2035 ban on the sale of new petrol/diesel internal-combustion-engine vehicles and has said it will look to nullify the Paris Climate Agreement.

Imparato said it would make sense for Alfa Romeo to offer an electric sports car, but the November election result could force a switch in strategy.

“My gut would call for giving to Alfa an electric sports car similar to the [Ferrari] Purosangue [large SUV], but we also have to watch how geopolitics and global markets could evolve, eventually choosing a more Europe-oriented small hatchback,” Imparato told ANE.

The car maker will unveil its first electric vehicle – the Alfa Romeo Milano city-sized electric SUV – on 10 April 2024, scheduled for European showrooms from September and yet to be confirmed for Australia.

In 2025 it plans to introduce the second-generation Alfa Romeo Stelvio mid-size SUV using the Stellantis STLA electric vehicle platform, with an electric Giulia mid-size sedan on the same underpinnings set for 2026.

Current plans include electric versions of the next Giulia large sedan and Stelvio medium luxury SUV, but an electric fastback SUV may be under threat if emissions regulations are softened – as planned by the former US President Trump’s troupe.

That includes the Republican party’s plan to remove incentives for car makers to sell electric vehicles as part of the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRL).

The IRL granted $US370 billion ($AU559 billion) for the US to transition to net zero with a goal of 50 per cent of new vehicle sales in the US to be electric by 2030.

Even without a Republican victory in November, President Biden has already faced a challenge from US car makers, forcing a softer set of proposed emissions laws and electric vehicle targets to be rewritten by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Yet Trump may go further, including the nullification of the Paris Climate Agreement – a legally binding climate change treaty adopted in 2015.

In 2020, the Trump administration – supported by major US car makers – announced it would wind back US emissions regulations set in place when Barack Obama was president.

The plan also sought to reduce US states from setting their own standards – such as California’s world-leading CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) laws instigated in 1975 – forcing them to follow federal laws instead.

In 2021 the Biden administration quashed the winding back of the laws and legislated Obama’s 5 per cent annual reduction in emissions from each car maker until 2026.

Laws could also change in Europe, again impacting Alfa Romeo’s planning – and impacting almost every car maker.

The European Elections on 6-9 June 2024, where the makeup of the European Parliament is formed, includes parties opposed to the current plan to outlaw the sale of new internal combustion-engine vehicles from 2035.

"We want to abolish the ban on combustion engines and preserve Germany's cutting-edge combustion engine technology and develop it further in a technology-neutral way," said a draft manifesto of the German Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), as reported by Cleanenergywire.org.

Multiple car makers globally have revised down sales and production forecasts of electric vehicles, including Mercedes-Benz and Renault as well as Ford and General Motors in the US.