Dyed in the wool Alfisti struggle to comprehend Elettrica
I’d like to believe that I’m an Alfista through and through. Before I was even a thing, my grandfather had one of the first Alfas in South Africa, a 1948 6C 2500 Cabriolet. He also entered all the Alfa Giuliettas and Sprint Veloces in the ’58 9 Hour, in essence the genesis of South African saloon car racing. My old man raced Alfa Romeos and I came back from the nursing home in dad’s Giulietta ti. And my first car was a Giulia ti… etcetera.
To me, an Alfa Romeo is always a very special car. History demands that. From the glorious days of the 1750s and 2300C Monzas winning the Millia Miglia and the rest in the 1920s and ‘30s, to the glorious 158 that Farina won the first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix, and World Championship with. Then after the war, Alfa Romeo led the world with the incredible little Giulietta and Giulia. Cars feared and revered even by V8 owners.
All along, all those and many more recent, great Alfa Romeos have had one thing in common. They led the world in developing the internal combustion engine and auto engineering in general. So when Stellantis lost its marbles and decided to take Alfa all-electric four or five years ago, I was not alone in being alarmed. Disgusted. Sure, build an EV. But for the Cross and Biscione to be limited to glorified milk floats? No, that was just not acceptable.
We must still test the Elettrica
Thank goodness that’s all changed. Former Stellantis CEO and electric architect Tavares has been exiled to some faraway planet and even the glorious Quadrifoglio biturbo V6 has now earned a stay of execution. Which means this car is the genesis of an ungodly but happily failed conspiracy to blemish this glorious brand forever. But here it is and test it we must.
First, however, a little extra info for you to digest on Junior. Initially launched as the Alfa Romeo Milano, it’s based on Stellantis’ Common Modular Platform shared with the Fiat 600 and Jeep Avenger. That the Milano was built in Poland did not go down too well. The Milanese basically rioted until the poor car was re-christened Junior. Not a very good start!
Available only as the Elettrica in a more basic 115 kW model and this full cream 207 kW Veloce get-up in South Africa, there’s also a third-less expensive 105 kW Ibrida mild hybrid overseas. Which 1.2 turbo petrol component is allegedly not compatible with our local fuel. Most interestingly, in markets where both are available, the hybrid outsells the electric car by ten to one. In Italy and Germany its beyond twenty to one. Hold that thought for a minute…
A cool driver centred Elettrica cockpit
Launched in South Africa late last year at a rand less than a million, the remarkably short release tucks more into Junior’s Italian Alfa Romeo’s style than it does the brand’s sorry evolution toward electrification. Now we cannot argue about that style. It certainly looks the part, even in this farm bakkie white hue.
Those cartoon wheels and big red front callipers add to the effect. But the spindly rear discs look lost in those holes. The driver-focused cockpit is super cool too. Although perhaps a bit too plasticky versus its million rand tag. And it’s quite busy too. Compared to the simplicity of say the Giulia.
Then the release tries to tell us that this car embodies a century of Alfa Romeo engineering excellence. Really? Pull the other one, guys! This Elettrica Veloce Junior has a 207 kW 345 Nm single electric motor driving the front axle via a Torsen mechanical limited-slip differential for best traction, while its sports suspension is lowered 25 mm.
Sounds like a playing card in bicycle spokes
On the road, Veloce tries its best to pretend it’s a petrol. It makes a muted noise that’s neither a four nor a V6. Sounds more like when we were kids and used to peg a playing card or three to our bicycle forks to make a racket in the spokes. So we could pretended that it had an engine. Like that old Chopper, this Junior does not have the real thing.
That said, we did beat Alfa’s pretty quick acceleration claim by two tenths. Interestingly Veloce delivered the identical zero to 100 that the GR Corolla 8AT did in the same week. But to achieve that performance just slaughters one of this car’s already glaring electric motoring weak points.
While any EV is a challenge, Junior Elettrica Veloce’s inexcusably short driving range compounds the issue even further. They claim you can drive it just over 400 km, while the WTLP says it’s around 340 km. Which is already way too short. But if you want to listen to that piped card on spokes noise, you’ll likely not make 250 kays. That’s useless. Especially considering the Ibrida will probably go beyond 800 km on a tank.
The Italians and Germans seem to agree
Packing a 54 kWh lithium-ion battery, the 400-volt 18.6 kWh/100 km system supports up to 100 kW DC charging to reach 80% capacity in under half an hour. But try find a vacant public charger that will do anything near 100 kW in South Africa. 11 kW AC on-board charging takes under six hours, so easy at home overnight. Just don’t travel too far, or too fast without studying the EV charger map in great detail first.
Getting back to that thought I asked you to hold, it seems that the Italians and Germans appear to agree for once. That only one in twenty of them want to buy this car versus its combustion assisted sister in countries fully geared towards electric motoring, tells a story all on its own. Like the World Rally Championship so successfully binned electrification, and Formula 1 now seems certain to kick its batteries firmly into touch, is there any reason for an electric Alfa Romeo?
We think certainly not. If anything, all this albeit beautiful Junior Elettrica Veloce will probably do, is one day stand as testament that no matter how clever your marketing team is, you simply cannot force anything on a market that does not care for it. Like believing the world wants an electric Alfa Romeo. Would that make this car more valuable in the long run? Nope, we seriously doubt that too. — Michele Lupini
Images & test data: Giordano Lupini
ROAD TESTED: Alfa Romeo Junior
Elettrica Veloce
Motor: 207 kW 345 Nm
Drive: Direct FWD
Battery: 500V 54 kWh lithium-ion
TESTED:
0-60 km/h: 3.03 sec
0-100 km/h: 5.73 sec
0-120 km/h: 7.61 sec
0-160 km/h: 12.92sec
400m: 13.9 sec @ 166 km/h
80-120 km/h: 3.37 sec
120-160 km/h: 5.31 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 200 km/h
Energy: 18.6 kWh/100 km
CO2: 0g/km tailpipe
Range: 335 km
Warranty/Service: 5y 100K/5y 100K km
LIST PRICE: R1.02M
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