It's no secret that Alfa Romeo's situation remains fragile in North America. Yesterday, figures shared on the Reddit platform put into perspective the reality faced by dealers in the United States. On average, each American Alfa dealer is selling only seven vehicles per month this year.
The math
The number of dealerships in the land of Uncle Sam is currently 110 (down from 135 in 2022). This year, compared to 2024, sales for the brand are down 10 percent since the start of the year, and 29 percent in the third quarter. In the first nine months of 2024, the company sold just 6,826 vehicles.
Which means that, on average, each of the brand's dealers sold 68 vehicles in 9 months, for an average of 6.9 models on a monthly basis.
Some dealers are certainly beating that low average; but it also means that others are selling virtually none.
Monthly sales vary, of course, from dealer to dealer and brand to brand, but generally speaking, a hundred vehicles sold a month is a common occurrence. On average, U.S. dealers might move about 50 vehicles per month. For smaller ones, especially in more rural areas, that might be around 15, especially in more remote locations. For bigger players, think 100 or so.
That's not where Alfa Romeo is right now.
The Tonale
Things would be worse were it not for the Tonale. The brand’s third model was introduced almost two years ago and this year it accounted for more than half the company's sales in the third quarter. Which is exactly what top brass anticipated when it was launched. Meanwhile, sales of the aging Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV plummeted by 36 and 41 percent, respectively, over the same period. Fewer than 1,000 of those two models sold between July and September in the U.S.
Alfa Romeo is of course one of the brands of the Stellantis Group, the CEO of which, Carlos Tavares, just resigned due to differences with other executives.