Fiat Chrysler Automobiles : Alfa Romeo unveils the B-Tech range during an exciting event

• A fascinating talk show with prestige guests was staged at the Fiat Design Centre
• On stage Roberta Zerbi, famous photographer Giovanni Gastel, Evan Orensten, co-founder and Executive Editor ofCool Hunting, Klaus Busse and Claudio Nervi.
• The FCA Design Centre, an ideas and trends incubator, also provided sensory experiences.
• The new commercial, conveying the message that driving a B-Tech range car is a choice inspired by the head as well as the heart, is now on air.

The event organised by Alfa Romeo to launch the new B-Tech range, available from all Alfa Romeo dealerships, has just ended. B-Tech builds on and reinforces the success of Giulia, Giulietta and Stelvio by offering a distinctive look including exclusive glossy meta-flake burnished details and technical features chosen to deliver comfort, safety and connectivity. The series continues the constant evolution of these models, which express the unique identity of the brand and the spirit of Italian excellence: B-Tech introduces a wealth of innovations to make Alfa Romeo's mechanical creations even richer and more individual.

Historic values in a new range

The theme of customisation was the leitmotif of the event hosted at the FCA Design Centre, a hub for research into forms and materials and incubator for new trends, where the new Alfa Romeo B-Techs were conceived.
To discuss the cars and pinpoint all the key thematic areas of the B-Tech world, an original talk show was held with celebrity guests. Roberta Zerbi, head of EMEA Alfa Romeo Brand, illustrated the market growth of Giulia and Stelvio and pointed out that this was the ideal time to launch special versions that express the Alfa Romeo DNA as never before. The B-Tech range embodies all the brand's historic values: Italian construction, the centrality of the driver and the driving experience, design and technology: 'Design and Technology are two keystones of Alfa Romeo's identity, but they are also clearly stated demands from our customers, people of discernment who love to stand out from the crowd, pay extreme attention to details and wish to surround themselves with the very best technology. B-Tech takes Alfa Romeo into uncharted territory which is still very much in keeping with its tradition', Roberta Zerbi commented.

Design and technology

Design has always been a distinguishing feature of the Alfa Romeo brand, but in a more and more competitive market, where new demands are emerging strongly, design has to be combined with the best technology: this area was covered by Klaus Busse, head of Design for Fiat, Abarth, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, and Claudio Nervi, head of feature portfolio planning. Klaus Busse underlined the fact that an Alfa Romeo special series is unlike any other special series, because it is originated not by adding on external features but by raising the brand's personality to new heights, while Claudio Nervi concentrated on the technologies chosen.

Giulia and Stelvio already meet the 'NCAP 5-star' safety requirements, which include Lane Departure Warning and emergency braking with pedestrian detection. The B-Tech edition also features Adaptive Cruise Control, a step forwards towards 'Alfa Style' non-invasive driver assistance. What's more, the lavish standard outfit includes the Alfa^TM Connect infotainment system with high definition 8.8' screen, compatible with the Apple CarPlay^TM and Android Auto^TM systems and Alfa Connected Services. Also available is the TomTom navigation system with three-dimensional maps for recognition of buildings and points of interest. Furthermore, widget display enables the driver to check the radio and navigation system at a glance, without distractions.
Giulietta B-Tech offers the innovative Alfa Connect 7' Radio by Alpine infotainment system, which is Apple CarPlay^TM and Android Auto^TM ready, rear camera and parking sensors, USB-HDMI input and Mopar® Connect. Thanks to Alfa Connect and the Alfa Connected services, the car provides a continually connected experience. With Apple CarPlay^TM readiness and Android Auto^TM compatibility, Alfa Connect guarantees total, user-friendly, safe access, directly on the car's own display, to smartphone functions such as music, calls and navigation.

Portraying B-Tech

To truly encapsulate the identity of the Alfa Romeo brand and the B-Tech range, the brand has chosen an artist with no connections to the automotive world, who has agreed to portray cars through his photographs for the first time, in an original yet elegant and tasteful way. In fact, the B-Tech range photoshoot is the work of grand master Giovanni Gastel. On stage, the famous Milan photographer told a rapt audience that this new project was a fresh departure for him, but explained that his experience as a portrait photographer enabled him to show Alfa Romeo's mechanical creations in a new light. Gastel worked along thematic lines and emphasised the B-Tech range's characteristics, using unusual schema and exploiting his immense compositional talent to juxtapose different worlds, always with impeccable style and his own ideal of elegance.

Where different worlds meet

Style is an absolute value, which apparently irreconcilable areas still have in common - a concept which clearly emerges from Gastel's work and the parallels between the worlds of fashion and automotive design. Black, intrinsic to the identity of the B-Tech range, is not just a stylistic detail but rather a strategy for giving visibility to the invisible, and highlighting Alfa Romeo's elegant yet technological soul. Gastel photographed designer articles and colours with the cars, to reveal their functionality and looks in a new, cool way. The work on materials and colours undertaken by the Design Centre and the photographer are in tune with a dominant trend. Evan Orensten, co-founder and Executive Editor of Cool Hunting, a digital publication that covers innovations in culture, design and technology for a readership of creative professionals, was invited onto the stage. Orensten reached beyond the frontiers of the automotive world to discuss trends and visions in the design, fashion and lifestyle universe. His comments made it perfectly clear, once again, that B-Tech expresses the dominant trend of the moment in a body and with a heart that are 100% Alfa Romeo.

The experience at the FCA Design Centre

At the end of the thrilling talk show, the audience were able to admire Giulia, Stelvio and Giulietta B-Tech, also on the reconstruction of Giovanni Gastel's set, complete with props and lights, enter a virtual room for a 3D experience of the models, and touch and examine the materials that inspired the stylistic choices incorporated in the B-Tech range.

Once again, the FCA Design Centre proved to be the ideal setting for an innovative, trendy presentation, and a space where original ideas and languages find concrete expression.

'Love is no longer blind'

Talking of original languages, the new commercial promoting Giulia and Stelvio B-Tech, developed for EMEA by the Ideal agency, directed by Laszlo Kadar and produced by Buddy Film, has been on air on Italy's main TV channels since 12 September. The commercial focuses on how the high-tech nature of the new Giulia and Stelvio B-Tech incarnates the core of Alfa Romeo's identity: developing the most advanced technologies to ensure the centrality of the human being. And what is more human than love? To recount the spirit of the brand, the two cars are humanised and shown as partners declaring their love for the viewer. The camera-work reinforces the amorous mood by lingering on design details and following the lines of the bodywork with an almost lustful eye - like lovers exchanging glances. This creates a dialogue in which every technological feature helps to build the foundation for a future blissful life together, for the perfect couple - an Alfa Romeo and its driver. To make it clear that, as well as all its innovative contents, a B-Tech is a choice approved by both the heart and the head, and that finally, with B-Tech, 'Love is no longer blind'.

Turin, 19 September 2018