2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio pricing and specs detailed: New Sport grade adds extra safety tech to take on Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLC and Porsche Macan

Alfa Romeo has lifted the point of entry to its Australian Stelvio range with the new Sport variant priced from $69,450 before on-road costs, a $3550 jump over the previous entry-level mid-size Italian SUV.

However, the new Sport grade adds a raft of advanced driver assistance systems and other equipment upgrades to justify its step up in price.

Now included is lane-keep assist, driver attention alert, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and traffic sign recognition – along with the carryover forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), reversing camera with rear cross-traffic alert, and front and rear parking sensors – making the Alfa Romeo Stelvio more competitive against the feature set of the BMW X3, Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz GLC.

The new Stelvio Sport also adds heated front seats, a heated steering, rear privacy glass, wireless smartphone charger and aluminium pedals on top of the equipment found in the previous base grade.

Carryover gear includes 19-inch wheels, a 7.0-inch driver display, 8.8-inch multimedia touchscreen with satellite navigation, dual-zone climate control and eight-speaker sound system.

Likewise, the 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine outputting 147kW/330Nm and eight-speed automatic transmission continue unchanged, sending drive to all four wheels for a zero-to-100km/h acceleration time of just 7.2 seconds.

Options available in the Sport include metallic paint ($1645), a dual-pane panoramic sunroof ($2545), space saver spare tyre ($595) and the Lusso pack ($3455) that bundles adaptive dampers, a powered tailgate, 14-speaker premium sound system and interior ambient lighting.

Like the 2021 Giulia range, it is expected that Alfa Romeo will streamline its Stelvio range, offering the Sport, mid-tier Veloce and top-spec Quadrifoglio.

Pricing for the Stelvio Veloce is yet to be revealed, but the new version will be powered by a 206kW/400Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine for a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 5.7s.

A powered tailgate, 20-inch black wheels, body-coloured wheelarches, black badging, adaptive dampers, a limited-slip differential are expected to be added on top of the equipment featured in the Sport.

As for the Quadrifoglio, it will use a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 for 375kW/600Nm to take on the likes of the BMW X3 M Competition, Mercedes-AMG GLC63 and Porsche Macan Turbo.