Alfa Romeo’s new SUV gets a new name

A few days after the world premiere of the Alfa Romeo Milano, the carmaker announced that the vehicle would launch under a different name. It will be called "Junior," after the Italian government criticised the Stellantis brand's first choice. (UPDATE BELOW)

Italy’s Minister of Industry, Adolfo Urso, pointed out around the time of the premiere that there has been a law against “Italian-sounding” products that are not manufactured in Italy since 2003 — the car formerly known as the Milano will be built in Poland.

“A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by Italian law,” Urso said. Stellantis gave in and renamed the small SUV.

“The name “Milano,” a public favourite, was chosen to pay tribute to the city where our history all began in 1910,” the carmaker wrote in a statement. “Despite Alfa Romeo believing that the name met all legal requirements and that there are issues much more important than the name of a new car, Alfa Romeo has decided to change it from “Milano” to “Alfa Romeo Junior” in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding.”

Alfa Romeo did not have to search long for a new name: the name Junior was also among the favourites in the public survey. Only behind Milano.

Alfa Romeo presented the small SUV last week. It will be available with a purely battery-electric drive, with a choice of 115 kW or 176 kW drive and a 54 kWh battery. The former has a WLTP range of up to 410 kilometres. A range for the latter has yet to be published.

The car manufacturer couldn’t resist a little side-swipe at the minister’s statement: “The attention to our new sports compact that we’ve received the past few days is quite exciting as we had an unprecedented number of visits to the online configurator, causing the website to crash for a couple hours,” says Alfa CEO Jan-Philippe Imparato.

Update 06 June 2024

Alfa Romeo has revealed UK pricing for the Junior Elettrica, its first fully electric model. Prices start from £33,895 OTR. Orders will open later this month.

As mentioned above, the Alfa Romeo Junior is the first Alfa Romeo to feature a fully electric powertrain. It is available with a choice of one of two power outputs, 156hp and up to 250-mile range, according to WLTP, or the sportier 240hp Veloce with up to 215 miles of range.

reuters.com, stellantis.com, stellantis.com (update)