Alfa Romeo Giulia to be leader in performance across the range

The Giulia QV is powered by an aluminium, turbocharged V6 engine ‘inspired’ by Ferrari. With 380kW of power and 600Nm of torque, the new sports sedan has a claimed 0-100km/h time of just 3.9 seconds.

Other variants of the Giulia are yet to be revealed, however according to Alfa Romeo’s chief operating officer of Europe, Africa and Middle East, Alfredo Altavilla, they will also encompass the essence of the brand and offer leading performance levels.

“The performance is in the DNA of Alfa Romeo, so there won’t be any Alfa Romeo [Giulia] that won’t stick with that DNA, regardless of the engine.” Altavilla told Australian media at the Frankfurt motorshow.

The Alfa Romeo Giulia is expected to begin right-hand-drive production towards the middle of next year with the car’s Australian arrival slated for the end of 2016 or even early 2017.

The Giulia will go head to head with the likes of Mercedes-Benz C-Class, BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and newcomer Jaguar XE.

It enters what is no doubt an extremely competitive segment, which in Australia is largely dominated by the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

The boss of Fiat Chrysler, Alfa Romeo’s parent company, Sergio Marchionne, has previously stated that the Giulia will have the BMW 3 Series in its crosshairs and considering the brand’s emphasis on performance, the similarities to BMW’s unique selling point are rather similar.

The challenge for Alfa Romeo in Australia will be to convince enough C-segment luxury buyers to forgo the German, British and Japanese offerings in its favour. However, if the performance of the Giulia QV is anything to go by, it might not require much convincing.

Check our video of the Alfa Romeo Giulia.