ARESE, Italy — A walk back in time through Alfa Romeo's museum here northwest of Milan reveals a company history as twisted as the country mountain roads on which its performance cars gained their reputation.
One of Europe's most storied brands, Alfa was born in 1910. It achieved the pinnacle of motorsport in 1925 with its first world championship, and was taken over by the Italian government in 1933 to save its coach-building business and the jobs it represented. The company transitioned to building aircraft engines during World War II, then emerged from Italy's ashes to produce compelling vehicles for sale around the world.
The 2020s bring another dramatic turn in Alfa's business model: a switch to battery power. Under the ownership of the Italian-French-U.S. conglomerate Stellantis NV, the Italian brand is relaunching itself into the U.S. market for the third time — call it Alfa 3.0 — since its debut in the mid-1950s.
