2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce Rwd on 2040-cars

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Stellantis wants to outfit cars with AI software to drive revenue

MILAN — Carmaker Stellantis announced a strategy Tuesday to embed AI-enabled software in 34 million vehicles across its 14 brands, hoping the tech upgrade will help it bring in 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) in annual revenue by 2030. CEO Carlos Tavares heralded the move as part of a strategy that would transform the car company into a “sustainable mobility tech company,” with business growth coming from features and services tied to the internet. That includes using voice commands to activate navigation, make payments and order products online. The company is expanding existing partnerships with BMW on partially automated driving, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn on customized cockpits and Waymo to push their autonomous driving work into light commercial vehicle delivery fleets. StellantisÂ’ embrace of artificial intelligence and expansion of software-enabled vehicles is part of a broad transformation in the auto industry, with a race toward more fully electric and hybrid propulsion systems, more autonomous driving features and increased connectivity in automobiles. Ford and General Motors also are banking on dramatically increased revenue from similar online subscription services. But the automakers face immense competition for monthly consumer spending from movie and music streaming services, news outlets, Amazon Prime and others. Stellantis, which was formed from the combination of PSA Peugeot and FCA Fiat Chrysler, said the software would seamlessly integrate into customers' lives, with the capability of live updates providing upgraded services over time. New products will include the possibility to subscribe to automated driving features, purchase usage-based car insurance or even increase the power of the vehicle with a tune-up to add horsepower. As a baseline, Stellantis generates 400 million euros in revenue on software-generated services installed in 12 million vehicles. To meet the targets, Stellantis will expand its software engineering team of 1,000 to 4,500 in North America, Asia and Europe. More than 1,000 of the expanded team will be retrained in house. Stellantis also announced a new partnership with Foxconn to develop semiconductors to cover 80% of the companyÂ’s needs and simplify the supply chain. The first microchips from the partnership are targeted to be installed in vehicles in 2024.

Alfa Romeo Milano revealed as brand's first full EV offering

Alfa Romeo has made it clear it's going to fully electric models over the next few years, and that seems to be starting with the newly revealed Milano. It's a subcompact SUV, and while it seems that it will be offered with an internal combustion engine (similar to its platform-mate, the Jeep Avenger), Alfa has only talked about the EV powertrains to start with. And at least one of them sounds quite entertaining. Styling-wise, there's no mistaking the Milano for anything but an Alfa. It's very curvy, and has the prominent inverted triangle grille that's the brand's signature. It adopts some boomerang-shaped headlights that blend into additional air inlets on either side of the grille. That inverted triangle grille can feature different patterns, such as the mesh with classic "Alfa Romeo" script shown on the blue example, or the zoomed-in Alfa shield pattern shown on the red one. The tail features a wide rear that attempts to ape the "kamm tail" of the Alfa Romeo TZ sports car. We're not sure how successful it is at that, but it still looks solid. The Milano is fairly small. It comes in at just over 164 inches long and 70 inches wide, or around the size of a Kia Soul. It's also about 2 inches shorter in length than a Jeep Renegade, but that also makes it about 4 inches longer than the diminutive Jeep Avenger.  The interior is pretty typical Alfa, too. The 10.25-inch instrument screen is housed in a double-barrel shroud, and the 10.25-inch infotainment screen is mounted a little lower and canted toward the driver in the center stack. Round air vents bookend the dashboard. Powertrain details aren't complete, but the basics are there. The standard versions will get a 156-horsepower single motor at the front, while the Veloce gets a 240-horsepower single front motor. Both get a 54-kWh battery pack. On the WLTP cycle, the 156-horsepower version gets 250 miles of range. That would undoubtedly be lower on the EPA cycle if the car were to be offered here. And while there's no number for the Veloce, you can also count on that being lower than the standard model. The Veloce doesn't just get more power, though. It sits an inch lower on 20-inch wheels, and it gets stiffer front and rear anti-roll bars. The front brakes are upgraded to four-piston calipers with larger 15-inch rotors. Capping everything off is a Torsen limited-slip differential. It sounds like an awful lot of fun (and also sounds a bit like the setup for the Fiat 600e Abarth).

Alfa Romeo 4C will be refreshed for the 2019 model year

Alfa Romeo Chief Technical Officer Roberto Fedeli said at a launch event for the Stelvio Quadrifoglio that an updated version of the 4C is coming next year as a 2019 model. "We are coming back to Formula 1," he said, "and we need the 4C to be our halo car," Fedeli told Autocar. But don't expect to see the refresh bring with it a manual transmission. No future high-performance models from Alfa, Maserati, or even Ferrari will be getting clutch pedals anytime soon, a decision reportedly made after Ferrari spent 10 million euros developing a manual gearbox for the California a few years back only to see exactly two customers choose the option over an automatic. We'd hazard a guess that Alfa will tone down its carbon-fiber 4C for the next generation. As fun as the little sportscar is on a race track, it's equally jarring to drive on regular roads. A revised suspension and perhaps power steering may be on the menu. Related Video: