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The Alfa Romeo Junior is the brand’s first electric car, and its first small SUV; the Veloce model is the one to go for if you want the driver’s car in the range.
Alfa Romeo has an enviable sporting heritage with petrol cars, but so far it’s not had an electric model on sale; however that has just changed with the arrival of the Alfa Romeo Junior. Initially named the Alfa Romeo Milano, the Italian government objected to this because the car was built in Poland, so Alfa changed it to a name lifted from the 1966 Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Junior. So is the electric Junior worthy of the Alfa badge?
The Alfa Romeo Junior is a sub-compact (B-segment) crossover SUV based on the same e-CMP2 platform as other Stellantis vehicles including the Vauxhall Mokka, Peugeot e-2008, Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600e.
So, like other Stellantis models, it probably won’t come as a surprise to find that the Junior has a 54kWh battery and a 154bhp electric motor powering the front wheels, with almost identical performance. However Alfa has made some engineering tweaks to the Junior, including reworking the suspension, brakes and driving dynamics.
The exterior looks sufficiently different from other Stellantis models, and features details such as a cut-out of the Alfa logo on the front grille. Due to new safety regulations the Junior is the first Alfa Romeo that doesn’t feature the traditional offset front number plate, and instead has a centrally-mounted plate.
The interior tech has similarities with other Stellantis products – more on that later – but there are unique visual details such as the Visconti serpent from the Alfa logo appearing on the air vents.
Because the Junior is a B-segment SUV don’t expect the cavernous rear legroom of larger electric SUVs – legroom is tight, not helped by the lack of a flat floor. The boot offers 400 litres of space, or 1,265 litres with the rear seats folded. You get a false boot floor, allowing you to store charging cables in the compartment underneath.
The Alfa Romeo Junior is available with two power outputs: 154bhp, or 276bhp in the case of the Junior Veloce. Our test car was the 154bhp model, which offers a similar driving experience to the Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600e. This means that the Junior offers some fun when driving around town, with its compact size resulting in decent agility, cornering is enjoyable thanks to responsive steering, and ride quality is comfortable on most road surfaces. What you don’t get is lots of performance, or tight body control through fast corners.
The Junior is front-wheel drive, and when combined with the torque of an electric powertrain this usually means lots of wheelspin and torque steer under acceleration, but this isn’t an issue with the Junior – it feels as though the torque delivery has been dialled down to avoid wheelspin, and the result is a fairly leisurely 0-62 mph acceleration time of 9.0 seconds. This is the case even if Dynamic mode is selected from the ‘DNA’ drive mode options (N = Natural and A = Advanced Efficiency).
Although the drive modes have different names in the Alfa, the drive mode selector switch is shared with other Stellantis models, as is the gear selector; you move a small switch to choose R, N and D, and press small buttons for Park and B – the latter giving you an increased amount of brake regeneration.
The cabin features a touchscreen which is wide, but narrow in terms of height, and it’s positioned much lower down the dashboard than most touchscreens. Above the touchscreen on the black dashboard are four black physical buttons, two of which are for Home and Car. In other vehicles these buttons are almost always found as shortcut buttons on a touchscreen, so the location of these on the Alfa is strange.
In fact the touchscreen doesn’t have any permanent shortcut buttons. For example, there’s no button for navigation, so there’s a possibility that someone getting into the car for the first time might assume there’s no satnav. In fact satnav does exist, but you need to swipe the touchscreen to the side to find it – although when you do find it, you’ll discover that it’s a much better option to use Google maps from Apple CarPlay instead. There are three different ‘home’ screens which can be found by swiping to the side.
Underneath the touchscreen is a row of small, dark buttons for climate controls and volume. There are no obvious buttons for heated seats, although these can be found hidden away in a climate menu on the touchscreen. And there’s no easily-accessed button for the radio.
So accessing car controls via the infotainment system is a messy, muddled and over-complex process; it would be much better to have permanent shortcut buttons on the touchscreen for the conventional items of Home, Nav, Media, Phone and Car.
The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica Speciale has a WLTP combined electric driving range of 254 miles. As per other Stellantis models, the range display on the dashboard provided a range read-out of 248 miles every time the car was fully charged, but the Junior’s range in the real-world was averaging 220 miles. The car was tested in winter when, theoretically, cabin heating shouldn’t impact on the car’s range too much because the Junior Elettrica has a heat pump as a standard feature.
The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica has a maximum rapid charging rate of 100 kW – again, the same as other Stellantis models. This means that a 20% to 80% charge can be achieved in around 27 to 32 minutes.
Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica prices start at £33,895, which is at the more affordable end of electric SUV pricing. Speciale trim, as tested, costs £35,695; our test car had the options of Technology Pack and Brera Red paint with a Black Roof, totalling £2,550, and taking the price of our test car to £38,245.
The Junior Veloce model features a 276bhp electric motor that is currently unique to Alfa, along with a Torsen mechanical limited slip differential, and is available from £42,295.
Read the Ford Puma Gen-E review and book a test drive
The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica is a welcome addition to the choice of small electric SUVs for car buyers. It offers the Alfa badge and individual styling, and although the driving experience offers some fun, it’s closer to what you would expect from other brands in the Stellantis family such as Vauxhall rather than Alfa. The Junior also features an infotainment system that would benefit from having more streamlined controls. The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica Speciale is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 7 out of 10.
If you want a driving experience that’s closer to what you would expect from an Alfa Romeo, you’ll need to opt for the Junior Veloce with 276bhp of power. This delivers a driving experience that differentiates Alfa from other Stellantis models – something that all Stellantis brands should ideally exhibit.
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