Giulia Quadrifoglio

Make
Alfa Romeo
Segment
Sedan

Alfa Romeo has been in the news a lot lately, and not all of it has been positive. We like the idea of Alfa doing one last ICE supercar before it goes all-electric, but we don't necessarily agree that the Italian brand needs to drop its sporty image to increase sales.

Alfa's CEO, Jean-Philippe Imparato, is also on record stating that the brand has no interest in building a large electric SUV as aerodynamics would dictate the design.

Now we have comments directly from the man in charge of Alfa's future designs, Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos. He joined Alfa Romeo a year ago as the new design boss and recently sat down for a talk with Top Gear.

Mesonero-Romanos' biggest gripe with car design is looking electric purely for the sake of looking electric. While manufacturers have started moving away from this philosophy, there are a few prime examples of vehicles that have since gone out of production. The BMW i3 and previous generation Nissan Leaf come to mind.

According to Mesonero-Romanos, these vehicles were essentially marketing communication. Manufacturers had to show their EV was different because it was.

"But now, everyone is, or will be, electric, so there is no need to say, 'hey, hello, I'm electric, look at me. There is no need to signify that you are electric. The only thing that changes is the source of power, but the rest of the values of the car don't change. To me it's important that it's an Alfa Romeo, whether it's electric or not," said Mesonero-Romanos.

"We want to be visceral. If we show a car and there's not a 'wow' effect, it's not the result we want to have. For us, it's very important for Alfa Romeo to have a bold stance, to have a proportion that breathes sportiness. We have to have an assertive expression of the front end. You look at any Alfa Romeo, they have an assertive regard, it's about character," said Mesonero-Romanos.

This is good news because it seems like Alfa won't lose its sporty edge after all. Looking at the brand's history, it has traditionally been more about style than substance. The Alfa Romeo 8C is the best example. It's achingly beautiful to behold, but it wasn't nearly as good to drive as its contemporary rivals.

Alfa Romeo only really found its groove in recent years with the brilliant Giulia Quadrifoglio, which is equal parts beautiful design and epic performance.

Let's hope this newfound DNA is carried through when Alfa goes EV in 2025.