Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo announced its new supercar on Friday, one that could compete with Ferrari and Porsche, Bloomberg reported. The news was unveiled during Fiat Chrysler’s five-year plan presentation to Italian investors. The company will introduce seven new models by 2022—one of them the 8C coupe, named after the 8C Competizione, produced from 2007 to 2010, and modeled after other race cars from the 1920s and 1930s. The new model goes beyond sports car, however, and enters the realm of “mid-engined supercar.”
Here’s what we know so far about the new 8C:
Like the 4C and Spider, the new 8C will be built around a carbon fiber monocoque, and is powered by both a midship twin-turbo engine and an electrified front axle, CNET reported. Together, combined with an all-wheel-drive electric drive system, the supercar will reach more than 700 horsepower. Alfa has not announced a top speed for the supercar yet, but the report added that the vehicle has an estimated 0 to 60 miles-per-hour time of less than three seconds.
The 8C, along with the rest of Alfa’s lineup of new models, will be ready to offer Level 2 and Level 3 autonomy, but the use of the self-driving technology will depend on the market. Level 2 offers partial automation, like steering, braking, and accelerating; whereas Level 3 offers more automation, though conditional, to drive and monitor the surrounding environment, but prompts driver intervention if it has trouble navigating.
Though more specific details about the vehicle were not available from Friday’s presentation, a representative from the company confirmed to Bloomberg that sports cars—and thus, the new supercar—will make up 5% of Alfa’s global sales by 2022, according to projections.
“We know our future depends on staying true to our sports car roots” Tim Kuniskis, now the global head of Maserati and Alfa Romeo, said in a statement. “We have learned that when we stay true to Alfa DNA, we can stand out in any segment.”
An earlier 2009 model of the 8C Competizione was a special-edition, two-seat sports car with prices that started at $300,000, and only 500 were produced worldwide.
