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Italian team hitting the track in an electric Alfa Romeo Giulia touring car

Alfa Romeo isn't scheduled to introduce its first electric model until the early 2020s, but the Giulia is giving up gasoline a little bit sooner to participate in the burgeoning ETCR racing series. Italian tuner and race car builder Romeo Ferraris — which isn't officially associated with Alfa Romeo or Ferrari — published renderings of the track-only sedan it plans to start racing in the coming months. Low, wide and winged, the Giulia ETCR looks ready to line up on the starting grid. And, as is often the case with racing cars, it shares little more than a silhouette with the street-legal sports sedan it's based on. The lights on both ends look nearly stock, but almost everything was developed from scratch by Romeo Ferraris and partner Hexathron Racing System. The 54-year old company pointed out the Giulia is its first electric car, and it stressed it developed the model without Alfa Romeo's support. Its 350-horsepower Giulietta TCR was an in-house project as well. While Romeo Ferraris hasn't published technical specifications, the ETCR regulations give us a good idea of what's under the body. Every car will be powered by the same motors, single-speed gearbox, inverter, and 65-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Series overseer WSC will provide the battery, while the other components will come from Williams Advanced Engineering. The powertrain makes 400 horsepower continuously, and it delivers a maximum output of 670 horsepower. The ETCR series will launch in 2020, though the calendar surprisingly hasn't been published yet. The battery-powered Giulia will need to fend off competition from a similarly modified Hyundai Veloster, and the e-Racer developed by Cupra, which was recently spun off from Volkswagen-owned SEAT. We expect other automakers will toss their hat in the ring in the coming months.

Alfa Romeo 4C production to continue until at least late 2020

Maserati will end production of the GranTurismo and the GranCabrio in November 2019, and it will retool the historic Modena, Italy, factory that makes both models in preparation for a new sports car due out in 2020. But Autoblog learned production of the Alfa Romeo 4C made in the same facility will continue even after the retooling, debunking rumors of the model's immediate demise. "Production of the 4C will continue in the same production plant/line until late 2020 for the NAFTA and APAC regions," an Alfa Romeo spokesperson told us via email. The factory will close during the retooling, so "there will just be some weeks of technical interruption" during the process, according to the same spokesperson. Production will resume as soon as the overhaul is completed, and Alfa's carbon fiber-intensive two-seater will be built alongside Maserati's next sports car. North American enthusiasts still have time to put a new 4C in their garage. Available only as a convertible, the 4C recently entered the 2020 model year with a limited-edition model named Italia that gains an array of visual add-ons, like piano black trim on the front end. Just 15 Italias will be built, but the standard 4C remains available as a regular-production model. It's powered by a mid-mounted, 1.75-liter four-cylinder engine turbocharged to 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. The engine's displacement wasn't chosen at random; Alfisti will know right off the bat that it echoes the 1750 engine Alfa offered in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. European enthusiasts aren't as lucky. Autoblog also confirmed an earlier report claiming 4C production for the European, Middle Eastern, and African markets ended in August 2018. While the GranTurismo will be replaced by a new model in 2021, what the future holds for the 4C is up in the air. Alfa Romeo's product plan doesn't currently include a second-generation 4C, which is too bad. It's one of the purest, most undiluted sports car on the market; may it live long. Featured Gallery 2020 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider Italia Auto News Alfa Romeo Convertible

Alfa Romeo will gain a Jeep Compass-based SUV

It was reported earlier this week that FCA would invest into its Italian factories to ramp up production at currently underutilized locations. Those plans have now been clarified with official information from FCA, as reported by Automotive News. The entire investment is worth $5.7 billion. First of all, Alfa Romeo will gain a new compact SUV based on the Jeep Compass architecture. The still-unnamed model will be available as a plug-in hybrid, and it will be built in Pomigliano, Italy. No U.S. availability has yet been announced, but it would not be odd to see the Compass-based model sold below the Stelvio in the States. The last time Alfa Romeo had anything similar in its model portfolio was when it offered Crosswagon-badged four-wheel-drive versions of the 156 and 159 wagons. As for the Jeep Compass itself, it will begin to be built at the Melfi plant in Italy. The rumored small "baby" Jeep slotting under the Renegade has not yet been officially mentioned. Fiat will introduce a battery electric 500, built in Turin, and the Pomigliano plant that will make the compact Alfa Romeo SUV will also be used to build a mild hybrid version of the Panda city car. The 500X will gain a PHEV variant. The Stelvio platform will also spawn a corresponding SUV for Maserati, and FCA also mentioned Maserati will introduce a new, unnamed model it will make in Modena. Automotive News quotes Italian press as saying this will be the Alfieri coupe and convertible, also offered as battery electric versions. Related Video: