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2021 Alfa Romeo Giulia Review | Still the driver's choice

Nearly every luxury sport sedan similar in size to the 2021 Alfa Romeo Giulia is a great driving car, but none can topple Alfa from its throne as the best. Its quintessential sport sedan combination of agile handling, superior driver communication and powerful engines is the best in the business. Unfortunately, the highs are high, and the lows are low when it comes to the Giulia.  The interior is better now than it was at the beginning, but it’s still less than the Germans in both luxury and technology. A frustrating and laggy touchscreen infotainment system is hardly an improvement over the non-touch interface of before. A palatial back seat has never been a sport sedan trademark, but the Giulia's competitors nevertheless out do it in that regard too (should you care). And of course, thereÂ’s the question of long-term reliability. We hope that Alfa Romeo has worked out the GiuliaÂ’s reported issues over the years, but reliability is worth considering with the carÂ’s troubled history. Many of these flaws might be worth looking past if you want the ultimate driverÂ’s sport sedan, especially if youÂ’re thinking about the dynamite Quadrifoglio and its brilliant Ferrari-derived engine. What's new for 2021? After the heavy 2020 updates, not much changed for 2021. The trim options are streamlined to just four now: Sprint (new base trim name), Ti, Ti Sport and Quadrifoglio. AlfaÂ’s dual-pane sunroof is made standard on Ti, and the limited-slip differential is now standard on Ti Sport. A number of new colors are available: Ocra GT Junior, Rosso GTA, Rosso Villa d'Este and Verde Montreal. Nothing changes for the Quadrifoglio. What's the GiuliaÂ’s interior and in-car technology like? AlfaÂ’s upgrades for 2020 focused on improving the GiuliaÂ’s cabin, and itÂ’s much better for it. Materials on the steering wheel, dash and center console are more in touch with luxury expectations, and the control interfaces are sturdy, quality parts. The overall result still doesn't match most competitors, but it's no longer objectionable, and the materials generally feel nice to the touch. The design itself is attractive and minimalist. It lacks the Swedish flair of a Volvo S60 or the drama of some of the offerings available from Lexus and Mercedes, but Alfa was sure to pack in just enough Italian flair (red leather helps) to keep things interesting.

Stellantis announces ‘Circular Economy’ business to drive revenue, decarbonization

Stellantis has already announced its plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2038. Today, the automaker has announced a new business unit to help it reach that goal while generating 2 billion euros per year in revenue by 2030. The “Circular Economy” business will help make revenue less dependent on finite, rare and ecologically problematic materials. The Circular Economy model features what Stellantis calls a “4R” strategy, comprising remanufacturing, repair, reuse and recycling. The goal is to make materials last as long as they can, reducing reliance on the acquisition of those precious new materials in the future by returning them to the business loop when theyÂ’ve reached the end of their first life. Through these processes, Stellantis says it can save up to 80% raw material and 50% energy compared to manufacturing a new part. Remanufacturing, or “reman” in Stellantis shorthand, means dismantling, cleaning and rebuilding parts to OEM spec. Nearly 12,000 remanufactured parts are available for customers to purchase. Some remanufacturing is done in-house, and some with partners and through joint ventures. Repair is pretty obvious — fixing parts to put back into vehicles. This also consists of reconditioning, to make a vehicle feel like new. Stellantis boasts 21 “e-repair” centers for repairing electric vehicle batteries.  Reuse refers to parts still in good condition from end-of-life vehicles sold as-is. Stellantis says it has 4.5 million multi-brand parts in inventory. These are sold in 155 countries through the B-Parts e-commerce platform. Reuse also refers second-life options, such as using batteries outside of automotive purposes. Recycling involves dismantling parts and scraps back into raw material form that is then looped back into the manufacturing process. Stellantis says it has collected 1 million parts for recycling in the past six months. Recycling doesnÂ’t get counted in that aforementioned 2 billion euros of revenue, but it does save the company money on acquisition of raw materials. As for batteries, specifically, Stellantis expects this recycling business to ramp up after 2030, when the packs currently in service begin to reach the end of their lifecycle. Stellantis will use its new “SUSTAINera” label to denote parts that are offered as part of its Circular Economy business.

Alfa Romeo Giulia SWB Zagato briefly teased, could be a coupe

Earlier this month, Alfa Romeo and Zagato teased the upcoming Alfa Romeo Giulia SWB Zagato with a single image of an unbroken LED taillight outlining what looked like a Kamm-back rear end. Zagato recently published a few more teasers to its Instagram page, but someone might have pressed the Send button too soon — the video and images are gone from the source. No matter, because this is the internet. The new shots hint at something that could justify Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato's assessment that the vehicle will be "very exciting, very selective, and very expensive." The image with the carbon-backed driver's seat contains a new rear window shutline and a crossbar. The redrawn glasshouse leads us to believe this will be a coupe, making the most of that Short Wheelbase designation. Some have called the crossbar a roll cage, but it looks to us like the kind of brace used in some cars that omit their rear seats, like the original Bentley Continental GT Supersports. The engine shot doesn't give anything away except the Quadrifoglio badge. The twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V6 could come with the same 505 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque as the Giulia Quadrifoglio, it could be uprated to the 532 hp and 442 lb-ft of the special edition Giulia GTAm, or, as buyers would hope, it could go beyond that. We'd expect the output to be sent through Alfa's eight-speed automatic transmission to the rear wheels through a limited-slip differential.  Zagato standards like new mesh vents and a vented hood make their appearances elsewhere. The grille gets printed with a stylized version of the red cross and crowned viper in Alfa Romeo's logo between the tri-section headlights that should debut on the facelifted Giulia. In back, a closer shot of the taillights gives away segments between LEDs, so the rear end won't be a continuous clamshell piece like the vintage Giulia TZ and Giulia TZ2. Detail bits like a carbon fiber front splitter and another take on the five-leaf-clover wheels from the Giulia GTA will make for dark and shiny jewelry.  The Giulia TZ debuted in 1963, the Giulia SWB Zagato will be the 50th birthday present to the original. Market launch is rumored to come in March next year, an official debut should come not long before that.