Alfa back in the USA

04.05.2006 FIAT CEO Sergio Marchionne confirms Alfa Romeo's return to the USA

During yesterday's conference call to announce Fiat's first quarter financial results, CEO Sergio Marchionne confirmed that Alfa Romeo is gearing up for an imminent return to the USA.

Fiat's Alfa Romeo division has long eyed a full-scale return to the hugely lucrative United States market which it withdrew from more than a decade ago, but several ambitious target dates in recent years have had to be postponed. However with a new model range that has been engineered from the outset to meet stringent US crash and safety regulations Fiat CEO Marchionne has been putting a careful timetable in place to realise this ambition.

Firmly cementing the new strategic relationship between Fiat's Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands will be that Alfa Romeo's model range will be distributed through the US-based Maserati dealer network, which itself over the last year, has been separated from its previous union with Ferrari. Maserati CEO Karl-Heinz Kalbfell who has been working on the long-term future of the two Fiat Auto brands as one of his roles, has been drawing up fresh plans along with James Selwa, the former Rolls-Royce North America CEO who Kalbfell brought in to take charge of Maserati North America once it was removed from Maranello's control and returned to the Fiat Auto fold. No timetable has been laid out yet, but it is expected it could come as early as late next year.