During the presentation of its new strategy New Auto, the executive director of the Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess — who saw his contract extended to 2025 ahead of the German giant's destinies —, did not fail to launch a small provocation when he stated that CUPRA has already sells more than Alfa Romeo.
Just recently we reported on how the Volkswagen Group tried, once again, to buy Alfa Romeo from the FCA in 2018.
A proposal made by Herbert Diess himself to the (then) FCA, at the request of Ferdinand Piëch (now deceased), after rumors at the time suggested that the Italian-American group could spinoff the historic Italian brand as it had done, with huge success, with Ferrari a few years earlier.
From the FCA, through its then-executive director Mike Manley, came a “No” for an answer, but it appears that the Volkswagen Group's “obsession” with Alfa Romeo — which has lasted for decades — doesn't seem to be over yet. Watch and listen to Herbert Diess during the presentation of the group's strategic plan:
If CUPRA's commercial success can be easily confirmed, comparing its commercial performance with that of Alfa Romeo implies that the Volkswagen Group looks to its young Spanish brand as a competitor to it.
For now, we can hardly see them as rivals, because both, nowadays, do not even “cross” in the market. Despite CUPRA's sportier focus, its ever-expanding range is all concentrated in the C-segment — Ateca, Leon, Formentor and, soon, Born. Alfa Romeo currently inhabits a segment above, the D, with two models, the only ones in its portfolio, the Giulia and the Stelvio.
Starting next year, Alfa Romeo will return to the C-segment — after the end of the Giulietta in 2020 — with the Tonale, a mid-range SUV in which among its potential rivals we can consider the CUPRA Formentor as one of them.
Still, can we consider CUPRA as a rival to Alfa Romeo? Or is this the desire (and intention) of the Volkswagen Group, expressed in this short but provocative statement by Diess?
