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Alfa Romeo CEO says making higher-quality cars is paying off (shocking, right?), and Hyundai is selling its Russian factory for chump change.
This is AM Drive, Motor1’s daily look at the news you need before you get in your car.
Alfa Romeo Has Lowered Warranty Costs By 50 Percent
Ghosts of the past are still haunting Alfa Romeo. Reliability remains a concern for customers, but the company’s boss claims huge progress has been made in recent years. So much so that warranty costs have been halved, according to Jean-Philippe Imparato. Speaking with Automotive News Europe, the CEO says he made the right call when he delayed the Tonale’s launch by six months to fix quality issues.
Sales are projected to go up by 30 percent in 2023 to 70,000 to 80,000 cars, with the driving force behind the surge being demand is the Tonale. The compact crossover is expected to account for 60 percent of total deliveries, with the remaining 40 percent split between the Giulia and Stelvio. At current rate, Alfa is selling about 6,000 Tonale units each month. The smaller Milano crossover launching in 2024 should bolster demand but Alfa Romeo is adamant it won’t become an SUV-only brand.
Imparato is happy to report that the company he’s running will provide an operating margin of “several hundred million euros” for 2023. Alfa Romeo had been hemorrhaging money before FCA merged with PSA to create Stellantis a couple of years ago. One method applied by the CEO to turn things around was by lowering complexity. Fun fact – there were about 4,000 options (including 47 wheels) available when he took the reins of Alfa. Now there are just 1,500.
Hyundai Sells Its Russian Plant For $77
Hyundai is the latest automaker to call it quits in Russia by selling its local plant for 7,000 rubles. That’s just $77 at current exchange rates. Operations were suspended back in March 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a regulatory filing, Hyundai reveals it’ll incur a 287 billion won ($219 million) loss.
While global automakers are leaving Russia, it gives Chinese brands the chance to penetrate the market with their own products. The Soviet-era Moskvitch brand has been revived to sell cars developed in China and made at the former Renault factory in Russia.
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