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Battery size: 54 kWh
Battery warranty: 8 years/100,000 miles
Range: 250 miles
Charging speed: 100kW
That battery, mated to a 154bhp electric motor that drives the front wheels, manages a range of around 250 miles, and they’ll be a sportier one coming, too. The Alfa Junior Veloce will get 236bhp, as it will use the same motor as the recently-confirmed Abarth 600e. It’ll also get wider track, a mechanical locking differential, so it should be properly fun to drive.
Styling and dimensions
The Alfa Junior is 4.17m long and 1.78m wide, which makes it a bit bigger than a VW Polo but smaller than a VW Golf (or ID.3). Being a compact SUV, it sits a bit higher than a standard hatchback, although a 1.5m high it’s still lower than a VW ID.3, so not all that SUV-ish, really.
According to Alfa Romeo, its designers have “completely detached themselves from the concepts of cold rationality in vogue to this class, to breathe life into a sinuous and exciting design.” Which we think translates as: it’s an SUV, but we made it look really sporty and nice. We’re not sure about that “strong desire to caress it” that Alfa also talks about, though…
It's certainly a bold look to the front end, and a bold size to the badge on the grille, all of which seems to move away from the cleaner, more classical lines of previous Alfa designs. Having said that, the ‘truncated’ rear end is a nod to a famous classic Alfa Romeo - the Giulia TZ.
Interior
It’s all about spottiness in here, too. The steering wheel has a fairly small diameter, the dash architecture swoops around so that the touchscreen and other controls are angled towards the driver, and if you go for the Sport pack, also with Alcantara-clad Sabelt seats. Other optional packs will include a Techno- pack, which will upgrade the semi-autonomous drive systems and bring fully adaptive LED Matrix headlights, or you’ll be able to choose a Premium Pack instead of the Sport, if you want luxury more than sportiness.
The 10.25-inch touchscreen has configurable home buttons, nav, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The back seats are a bit tight for space compared with some rivals, but a couple of kids will be comfy, and there are two charging ports in the back – which may make up for the lack of a central armrest.
Boot space
The Junior gets 400-litres of boot space, which is pretty impressive for a compact car like this, and is actually more than you get in the VW ID.3. There’s no ‘frunk’ though; the Alfa Junior is offered as a petrol hybrid car, as well as an electric car, so Alfa hasn’t been able to engineer in any space under the bonnet.
Battery, charging and economy
The 54kWh lithium-ion battery is familiar from the Jeep Avenger, Peugeot e-208, Vauxhall Corsa-e and more, and here it’s expected to manage a range of around 250-miles, although we’ll have to wait for the finalised figure. The higher-powered, beefed-up Alfa Junior Veloce model gets 236bhp – rather than the 154bhp of the standard car – plus a number of tweaks to make it feel like a proper enthusiast’s car, so we’d expect range on that to be quite a bit lower.
Rapid charging is up to 100kW, which will get a 10-80% charge in around 30 minutes, or a 100-mile top-up in about 20 minutes.
A 7kW home charger will deliver a full charge from nearly empty in eight hours.
Price and equipment
Prices haven’t been confirmed yet, but expect the Alfa Junior Ellectrica (that’s ‘electric’ in Italian, in case you’d missed that Alfa is really pushing the Italian heritage, here…) to cost from around £35,000 and up, with those packs and a variety of colours and wheel options likely to push the price up towards £40,000 pretty easily.
Verdict
The Alfa Junior Elletrica – or Alfa Milano, if you will – may not be stylistically to the tastes of some traditional Alfa fans. However, it could really appeal to a new, younger buyer that may not previously have considered an Alfa, and that’s no bad thing for the company. More than that, having the Junior as a new, flamboyant option in the compact electric family car classes is no bad thing for buyers, either.
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