GENEVA (AP) -- Beyond the United States, sports car maker Alfa Romeo will look to China for future growth, brand CEO Harald Wester said at the Geneva Auto Show on Tuesday.
"Most probably we will be in China pretty soon," Wester said, without specifying a time frame.
The brand's strategy would be to import cars, he said, so "we don't have to do a big investment and create a new plant."
Fiat's sporty Alfa Romeo brand unveiled the 4C concept car -- a super-light sporty two-seater aimed at tapping the brand's racier identity. The body is carbon fiber, more common in a Ferrari or Lamborghini, will weigh less than 850 kilograms (1,875 pounds) and boasts over 200 hp.
Still a concept, after some technical finetuning the car will be ready for sale in late 2012, Wester said.
It will be a global car for Alfa Romeo, but will follow into the U.S. market after an C-class SUV and a D-class sedan, the successor of the 159, planned for the brand's re-entry into the United States in late 2012 or early 2013 after a nearly 30-year absence. Alfa will launch in the United States under Fiat's alliance with Chrysler, which Fiat controls with a 25-percent stake.
"If you look at high performance cars today, people take standard cars and put a big engine in it," Wester said. But he didn't want a revved up Giulietta, the C-class hatchback launched to help revive the flagging brand.
"A high performaing Giulietta does not represent what the brand is," he said.
Wester would not say what the price would be, but when $60,000 was suggested he said: "I hope I can make it more affordable."
Wester said Alfa is still working on dealer network in the United States, playing with concepts either establishing its own network or teaming up with premium brand Maserati, which Wester also heads.
Alfa Rome's sales targets in 2011 are 165,000 cars, compared with around 113,000 last year. The 2011 target is less than the 200,000 set out in Fiat's five year plan laid out last April.
In Geneva, Volkswagen CEO Ferdinand Piech said that if Alfa Romeo were in VW hands, it could quadruple sales. Volkswagen's very public expressions of interest in the brand has been rebuffed firmly by Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, whose goal is to create an automaker capable of producing 6 million cars a year.
But the German automaker isn't leaving the idea alone.
Volkswagen presented a new sporty compact car concept designed by the Italian design house Giugario Italdesign, which VW took control of last year. The sloping V-shaped is much more sleek than most Volkswagens -- and the head of VW's powerful workers' council Bernd Osterloh pointedly told reporters that the design could be an Alfa.
"Most probably we will be in China pretty soon," Wester said, without specifying a time frame.
The brand's strategy would be to import cars, he said, so "we don't have to do a big investment and create a new plant."
Fiat's sporty Alfa Romeo brand unveiled the 4C concept car -- a super-light sporty two-seater aimed at tapping the brand's racier identity. The body is carbon fiber, more common in a Ferrari or Lamborghini, will weigh less than 850 kilograms (1,875 pounds) and boasts over 200 hp.
Still a concept, after some technical finetuning the car will be ready for sale in late 2012, Wester said.
It will be a global car for Alfa Romeo, but will follow into the U.S. market after an C-class SUV and a D-class sedan, the successor of the 159, planned for the brand's re-entry into the United States in late 2012 or early 2013 after a nearly 30-year absence. Alfa will launch in the United States under Fiat's alliance with Chrysler, which Fiat controls with a 25-percent stake.
"If you look at high performance cars today, people take standard cars and put a big engine in it," Wester said. But he didn't want a revved up Giulietta, the C-class hatchback launched to help revive the flagging brand.
"A high performaing Giulietta does not represent what the brand is," he said.
Wester would not say what the price would be, but when $60,000 was suggested he said: "I hope I can make it more affordable."
Wester said Alfa is still working on dealer network in the United States, playing with concepts either establishing its own network or teaming up with premium brand Maserati, which Wester also heads.
Alfa Rome's sales targets in 2011 are 165,000 cars, compared with around 113,000 last year. The 2011 target is less than the 200,000 set out in Fiat's five year plan laid out last April.
In Geneva, Volkswagen CEO Ferdinand Piech said that if Alfa Romeo were in VW hands, it could quadruple sales. Volkswagen's very public expressions of interest in the brand has been rebuffed firmly by Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, whose goal is to create an automaker capable of producing 6 million cars a year.
But the German automaker isn't leaving the idea alone.
Volkswagen presented a new sporty compact car concept designed by the Italian design house Giugario Italdesign, which VW took control of last year. The sloping V-shaped is much more sleek than most Volkswagens -- and the head of VW's powerful workers' council Bernd Osterloh pointedly told reporters that the design could be an Alfa.
