Alfa Romeo Junior 2024 preview: specs and full details of the car that used to be

It’s almost six years since Alfa Romeo axed its baby model, the Mito – but the iconic Italian brand is now returning to the small car market with this new SUV, called Junior. The Alfa Romeo Junior was unveiled on April 10 2024 as the Alfa Romeo Milano. It took less than a week for the car to be renamed as the Junior in an unprecedented move that followed a legal storm in Italy over the Milano being named after Milan yet built in Poland.   

Putting that all-time great automotive PR gaffe to one side, Alfa Romeo Junior is the company’s twist on the formula already used by Stellantis stablemates Opel/Vauxhall (Mokka), Fiat (600), Peugeot (2008) and Jeep (Avenger). It uses the group’s e-CMP2 modular architecture and will be offered with a choice of two electric-motor versions or a 48-volt petrol hybrid.

What powertrain options and performance can we expect?

The Alfa Romeo Junior EVs will share the usual Stellantis battery and charging configuration, with a 54kWh (50.8kWh usable) capacity and refills at up to 100kW, but there will be two motor options. The Junior Elettrica gets the typical 154bhp motor set-up, allowing up to a claimed 255 miles of range and delivering a 0-62mph time that’s likely to be around nine seconds.

The Junior Elettrica Veloce, meanwhile, features a punchier front-mounted 237bhp motor (almost certainly shared with Abarth’s forthcoming 600e, since that car has a similar quoted figure) and a bespoke chassis calibration that includes a Torsen mechanical differential, a faster steering ratio, a widened track, different front and rear anti-roll bars, stiffer suspension that lowers the ride height by 25mm, beefed-up brakes (380mm discs at the front) and 20-inch alloy wheels.

The petrol-powered version of the car will be called the Junior Ibrida. It gets a 134bhp 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol set-up that incorporates a 28bhp electric motor integrated into the six-speed automatic gearbox, allowing the car to run on electricity alone around 50 per cent of the time in town.

The Ibrida will be initially offered with front-wheel drive, but Alfa says a four-wheel-drive Q4 version will arrive “at a later stage”. It hasn’t released any technical details on the Q4, beyond saying it will deliver “automated rear-wheel drive axle management”, but it’s likely that it will share at least some components with the forthcoming Jeep Avenger 4xe, which places an additional 28bhp electric motor on the rear axle. Auto Express understands that the Ibrida is not yet confirmed for the UK, and that even if it does make it to showrooms here, it’s likely to be in two-wheel-drive form only.

What do we know about the efficiency and running costs? 

The electric Alfa Romeo Junior’s 54kWh battery can charge at up to 100kW and the range is quoted as 255 miles. Alfa says that both Elettrica editions will get a Free2move charging card that includes access to over 600,000 charging stations across Europe, and a wallbox as standard.

What is the exterior and interior design like?

The Junior is actually one of the bigger e-CMP2 creations; at 4.17 metres in length, it’s a few centimetres up on both the Avenger and Mokka, though pretty much identical to the Fiat 600 and a fair bit shorter than the Peugeot 2008. The Alfa manages to look distinct, though, thanks to some typically sharp styling elements. The front end features stacked ultra-slim headlights and daytime-running lights, with a darker intake lower in the bumper and Alfa’s ‘shield grille’ set in textured plastic beneath a badge mounted on the leading edge of the bonnet.

The side features cleaner surfacing, with a simple crease lower down and another higher one that curves over the rear wheelarch to accentuate the rear shoulders of the car. The side profile looks more hatchback than SUV, with a relatively large glass area and a door handle that, as on the Jeep Avenger, is integrated into the C-pillar. The rear has a swept-up tail, with a one-piece lighting element that incorporates a slim LED signature, plus the Alfa Romeo script badging. 

Inside, the Junior stays true to Stellantis’s e-CMP2 hardware with a pair of 10.25 displays – one for the digital instrument panel and the other a touchscreen for infotainment. The designers have tried to give the Alfa’s fascia its own distinct identity, though, with a more pronounced cowl shape around the dials and ‘cloverleaf’ air vents.

The central screen, meanwhile, sits a little lower than in other e-CMP models, with slim air vents above it. There’s a more conventional lower centre console, too, with familiar Stellantis switches present but not the foldable cubbyhole cover that we’ve seen in the Avenger and 600e.

What do we know about the infotainment system? 

 Alfa says the infotainment interface will be easily customisable, thanks to app ‘widgets’ that can be dragged around the screen and saved in position. The system gets over-the-air updates and connected navigation, too. Based on our brief experience with the…