What was only a distant rumor a while back is turning into more and more of a reality. German manufacturer is indeed considering adding Alfa Romeo to its portfolio of brands, but apparently, the Italians who own Alfa, Fiat, are against it.
According to the latest information from the German-Italian front, the buying of the Italian carmaker will fall right into the larger plan Volkswagen has of taking over the automotive world by 2018. The VW moves comes just in time, because Alfa's position within the Fiat group seemed to weaken.
That apparently isn't so, as Fiat's Marchionne apparently has big plans for the brand. The Fiat-Chrysler CEO plans to sell no less than 500,000 Alfas a year.
A reachable target? Sure, but under a new owner, some analysts seem to believe.
”Maybe Alfa could get to a half million unit sales a year, but only after the brand is sold to Volkswagen,” Arndt Ellinghorst, global head of automotive research at Credit Suisse was quoted as saying by Autonews.
Other analysts have already began calculating how Alfa Romeo can enter the Volkswagen portfolio. According to some of them, led by Bernstein analyst Max Warburton, the problem is very simple and the solution to the integration of the Alfa brand is the same: Seat.
"It's pretty simple in our view -- VW could kill the Seat brand and re-launch it as Alfa. Former VW CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder used to say that he wanted to turn the (struggling) Seat brand into a 'Mediterranean, emotional, sporting brand -- VW's Alfa Romeo,'" Warburton wrote last year when news of such an outcome for the Italian brand surfaced.
"Rather than imitate, why not just actually become Alfa Romeo?"
Of course, it all depends on the Italians' decision to sell, a decision which, at least for now, is nowhere to be seen.
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