Alfa Romeo may be considering dropping the 145-horsepower 1.2 Hybrid as the entry engine for its future models and replacing it with a more powerful 1.6 hybrid unit that would better match the sporty positioning the brand wants to reaffirm. According to some internal reports that remain unconfirmed, the first project involved would be the new SUV known internally as A4U. Alfa Romeo is reportedly looking at a technical base that could offer a more convincing performance threshold from the very bottom of the range, one more consistent with the brand’s DNA.
Alfa Romeo may drop the 1.2 hybrid in favor of a stronger 1.6 hybrid
Inside Stellantis, one major question remains open. How far can the group push component sharing across its brands without weakening the identity of each one? For Alfa Romeo, that issue matters especially strongly. The brand is putting growing emphasis on the central role of Quadrifoglio models and on the importance of driving feel in its communication. In that context, even the choice of entry engine takes on a meaning that goes beyond the spec sheet, because it shows how far Alfa Romeo is willing to separate itself from the rest of the group.
The engine that could replace the 1.2 would be the 1.6 HEV, already used in some Jeep models for the U.S. market and derived from the PureTech family. According to the rumors circulating so far, this powertrain could deliver more than 200 horsepower. That would give Alfa Romeo a much stronger starting point and create a clearer distance from the other Stellantis brands that use the 1.2-liter three-cylinder as the base engine in their ranges.
A practical issue, however, remains impossible to ignore. Stellantis already builds the 145-horsepower 1.2 Hybrid on a large scale, and the group has fully integrated it into its European lineup. The 1.6 HEV, by contrast, has not yet reached the same level of diffusion. Any move in this direction would therefore need to account for industrial cost, scale economies, and the time required to make the engine available across European markets, all factors that weigh at least as heavily inside Stellantis as brand-image considerations.
For now, everything remains in the rumor stage and no official confirmation exists. Even so, the very fact that Alfa Romeo may be considering this kind of change has attracted attention among those who closely follow the brand. If true, it would suggest a willingness to differentiate Alfa Romeo’s offering starting from the entry-level powertrain, an area where up to now the brand has shared almost everything with the rest of the Stellantis group.
