Maybe
Maybe some brands just don’t work electrically. Abarth, for example. Or Maserati. Maybe you shouldn’t even try to keep brands that have primarily defined themselves through their engines and the corresponding soundscape alive with electricity. Because that probably won’t work, they’re moving too far away from their core, and also from their previous clientele. The marketing gurus will now explain that yes, it is possible, it is much more difficult, and above all more expensive, to introduce a new name than to redefine an existing one, but I strongly disagree. If you turn a chocolate bar into a vegetable biscuit and try to sell it under the name of the chocolate bar, then a few people will buy the vegetable biscuit because they haven’t realised that it is no longer a chocolate bar, but in all likelihood they will be quite disappointed. Others will also buy the new vegetable biscuit because that’s exactly what it is, but they don’t care at all whether it used to be a chocolate bar. So: anyone who still buys an Abarth (with the possible exception of the 500e, because it looks the same as before, but the numbers are anything but impressive) would have bought the car even if it had been called a chocolate bar. Or a vegetable biscuit. Or an Alfa Romeo. And that brings us to the point.
The Alfa Romeo Junior is based on the Common Modular Platform (CMP) of the Stellantis Group. CMP was introduced in 2018 and is currently also used for: Abarth 600e, various Citroën C3 and C4, the Dongfeng Yixuan, DS3, Fiat Grande Panda and 600, Jeep Avenger, Lancia Ypsilon, the Opel Corsa, Fron terra and Mokka, the Peugeot 208 and 2008. Some of the models mentioned are available as pure electric vehicles, but most of them – including the Junior – are also available as hybrids, so CMP is a compromise platform. This may create a lot of synergies and save money, but in the end, all these products are neither the best electric nor the best hybrid, but simply: compromises. eCMP is certainly no longer the most modern electric package, 400-volt architecture, no pre-programming when charging, no uniform floor plate, only 11 kW with direct current, only 100 kW with alternating current. Many of these Stellantis models are knocked together in Tichy, Poland, including the Alfa Romeo. Which is why it was not allowed to be called the Milano, as originally planned.
So if the same substructure has to cover the wide range from low-priced cars (such as Citroën) to the premium product that the Alfa Romeo junior already wants to be, then a few concerns arise. Well, we have known this game very well since MQB (it worked very well – in the past) and MEB (it doesn’t work so well) from the Volkswagen Group, but Stellantis is now taking it to the extreme. It has been quite successful in recent years, reducing costs and improving margins, partly because it has been able to serve the individual markets well with the appropriate models. Opel is doing quite well in Germany, and Peugeot remains strong in France. But now they seem to have reached their limits, the trend is pointing sharply downwards, and the contract of the architect of this construct, Carlos Tavarez, will not be renewed. And somehow there is no prospect of improvement, even though a new platform is already available, STLA in different sizes, but again this is only a compromise, both petrol and electric cars; Renault, for example, is doing significantly better with its dual strategy, i.e. a clear separation.
Alfa Romeo has now gone to great lengths to avoid the trap of equalisation as practised by Stellantis. Visually, the 4.17-metre-long Junior is certainly a success (definitely prettier than its bigger brother, the Tonale), even if I don’t understand a few things, such as the Scudetto made of black hard plastic, or the brand emblem that is no longer coloured. What doesn’t look good at all on the Stromer as a Veloce: the very airy 20-inchers at the back reveal a really puny brake (incredible 382 millimetres at the front, 268 millimetres at the back). And what is really annoying about the Italians: the constant references to the brand’s design icons, the 8C has been quoted (yes, it also has four wheels), they go peddling ‘Coda Tronca’ (in the brochure they speak of an SZ, but then show a TZ). That’s just not true, the junior is a compact SUV – and looks like a compact SUV, period. Inside, all CMP products look very similar, even though Alfa has designed the round instruments in front of the steering wheel a little differently, again quoting the glorious past, but then still using cheap plastic on the doors. The rear is then pure dreariness and not particularly spacious either, but the boot, with its 400-litre capacity, is generously sized for the size of the vehicle. With its 1635 kilo kerb weight, it also performs quite well compared to the competition.
Alfa Romeo states an output of 280 hp for the Veloce electric car, which means they found another 40 hp between presentation and the start of production. With this, the Italian wants to race from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.9 seconds – which is probably a bit optimistic. Because I didn’t perceive the electric junior as overpowered on the first test drive; a Volvo EX30 – in the weakest version – has a completely different effect on the back when accelerating. And although the front-wheel-drive Junior has a Torsen differential on the front axle that directs more power to the inside wheel when cornering to improve handling, I didn’t find the Italian really sporty when driving up the hill; a much weaker Alpine A290, for example, is much better at this (although the driving fun is electronically limited there). The sportiest attribute of the Veloce are the Sabelt bucket seats, which also look good, but are only available at extra cost.
Which brings us to the prices – and the whole story starts all over again, so to speak. Because the Alfa Romeo Junior is also available as a hybrid petrol engine with a rather meagre 136 hp (but also only 1380 kilograms kerb weight), this from 31,490 francs – it is safe to assume that this will be the best-selling variant. As an electric car, the Alfa comes either with 156 hp/260 Nm or 280 hp/345 Nm; both variants have a 54-kWh battery and charge at a maximum of 100 kW. The weaker variant has a range of 410 kilometres according to WLTP, and the stronger variant: less. On the other hand, it costs significantly more, from 49,490 francs instead of from 41,490 francs. But for the cool seats, you also need the sports package for another 3,500 francs. And you have to order the tech package anyway, otherwise not even a navigation system is included, which costs another 3,500 francs. Help!
But the biggest problem with the Junior is: it lacks any form of emotion. You can forgive an Alfa Romeo so much, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it can still cost a little more, but it also has to be able to offer a certain minimum of emotions. Of course, you miss the noise in the Stromer (by the way, the hybrid sounds very dull), but not only that, it also doesn’t smell like an Alfa, it doesn’t feel like one, haptically. The compact SUV is simply still an SUV, and on top of that, one on a platform that is used in dozens of other cars and is truly not very technically advanced. A bit of chip tuning doesn’t turn an Italian car into a sports car; other manufacturers can do that more impressively for less money. Maybe some brands just don’t work electrically. Alfa Romeo, for example?
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