The Next Alfa Romeo Stelvio Reportedly Slips to 2028 and Gains a Hybrid

The next Alfa Romeo Stelvio has reportedly slipped to 2028, according to reporting relayed on 7 August 2026, and it will no longer arrive as an electric-only car. Alfa Romeo has not confirmed either change, so treat both as reporting rather than a product announcement.

What is said to have changed

The car was originally due to be revealed in 2026. The new timing puts it two years later. More significant than the delay is what caused it: the Stelvio was planned as a battery-electric model only, and the plan now includes hybrid powertrains alongside the electric version.

The stated reasons are adjustments to powertrain technology and technical changes to the vehicle. STLA Large was designed from the outset to take combustion, hybrid and electric drivetrains, so the platform is not the obstacle — engineering and validating a hybrid variant that was not in the original programme simply takes time that was not in the schedule.

The pledge this quietly buries

Alfa Romeo had committed to selling only electric cars from 2027. A Stelvio arriving in 2028 with a hybrid option makes that target unreachable, and nothing about the reported plan suggests Alfa intends to defend it.

That is not a surprise, and Alfa is not an outlier. The 2021 wave of EV-only commitments across the European industry was made when demand curves looked steeper than they turned out to be, and most have since been softened, delayed or dropped without much ceremony. What is notable here is the mechanism: the deadline is not being formally abandoned, it is being made impossible by a product decision.

Delays of this shape are becoming a pattern across the industry's affordable and volume electric programmes — Lucid pushed its Cosmos SUV to the second half of 2027 on a similar reading of the market.

The Italian dimension

The timing has consequences beyond the product plan. Stellantis presented the Italian government with a plan to revive production and employment in Italy, and Alfa Romeo models are a meaningful part of it. A Stelvio arriving two years late slows that commitment, which makes this a political question in Italy as much as a commercial one.

What it means for European buyers

If you are waiting for an electric Stelvio, you are waiting until 2028 at the earliest, and the reported timing is not a promise. The current Stelvio, on a platform that dates to 2016, continues in the meantime. The next Giulia is so far reported to be unaffected.

For anyone shopping the segment now, the practical conclusion is that Alfa will not have a competitive electric SUV this side of 2028 — in a class where German, Korean and Chinese rivals are each on their second or third generation.