Jeremy Clarkson once noted that you can’t call yourself a true car enthusiast unless you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo. Perhaps he was alluding to the masochism that was integral to the experience, the price you paid to access something that most cars lacked: soul.
Ensoulment. That’s quite the concept. Matt Johnson’s The The have recently returned to the fray with an album entitled just that. Matt’s always been one for taking the temperature of the times, and I happen to know that he’s partial to classic cars. Old Rovers in his case rather than old Alfa Romeos, an analogue jag that you could probably also get in a classic Jag. Anyway, there are songs on the new record – it’s best enjoyed on vinyl, funnily enough – that tackle the modern world’s overwhelming desire to connect whilst abjectly failing to do so. That’s a paradox that runs to the heart of the new Alfa Romeo Junior, the company’s first fully electric car.
Now, I could give you chapter and verse on Alfa Romeo but I’ll keep it brief. In terms of history it makes Ferrari and Lamborghini look like arrivistes. Indeed, Enzo Ferrari himself raced Alfas exactly 100 years ago before deciding his future lay in being the puppet-master rather than as a driver in that deadly era. He assumed full control of Alfa’s racing team in 1933, thus creating the original Scuderia Ferrari. Meanwhile, Alfa created some lissom road cars in this same period; look at the 1938 8C 2900B Lungo Spider, for example, then have a look at how much it’s worth now. The company also democratised la dolce vita in the Sixties in the shape of the Duetto Spider and Bertone-designed GTV, and had hearts pounding with some mesmerising racing cars. But then the State got involved and that never ends well. Particularly in Italy.
And now we have the new Junior. The pitch here is interesting because Alfa Romeo has long traded on the seemingly inexhaustible goodwill of those who can remember the glory days. But many of those people are getting on a bit now, like Clarkson, and their grandchildren don’t remember the early Noughties, never mind Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate or the prehistoric pre-war era. So the Junior is setting its sights on new Alfisti, people for whom this will almost certainly be their first Alfa Romeo. People who may never have heard of the name at all. It’s doing this in the time-honoured fashion, by being the sportiest and prettiest looking contender in a very congested sector. And by being fully electric.
Like most things, this sounds better in Italian – elettrica – but it’s still enough to make the faithful fearful. Of course, while they claim they want a sonorous coupe or convertible, what everyone’s actually buying are compact crossovers, a format that stress tests the idea of automotive glamour to destruction. Alfa Romeo’s design team is led by a suave looking Spanish man called Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, who helped give life to the impressive Cupra brand while he worked for the VW group. He’s overseen the luscious limited run Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, which arrives next year and costs several million pounds. But he’ll earn his bonus if the Junior is a hit which explains why it looks as good as it does. It’s 4.1m long and extremely well-proportioned for a small-ish family car. It has a bold nose, pleasingly truncated tail, and punchy graphics. Few look to cars in this class for design inspiration but the Junior has real impact.
The bits underneath are trickier. Alfa is part of the sprawling auto mega-corps that is the Stellantis group, so the car’s underpinnings are shared by various Fiat, Jeep, Peugeot and Vauxhall models, amongst others. The Junior is available in two guises at launch, an entry level car powered by a 156bhp motor fed by a 51kWh battery, or the Veloce which gets a power uplift to 280bhp. (A 136bhp, 1.2-litre hybrid arrives in the UK next year.) In the old days these would have been numbers to conjure with but they’re fairly modest by electric car standards.
It doesn’t matter. Both versions are front-drive only; much more than that through the front wheels risks corrupting the steering and handling. As it is, the Junior is one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable driver’s cars of the year. Alfa’s engineers have worked real magic on the shared hardware, the Veloce version gaining a mechanical Torsen limited-slip differential, tweaked suspension, and a faster steering rack to do a convincing impression of a lively but never uncouth hot hatch. After a while I forgot that it was electric, and enjoyed booting it out of corners safe in the knowledge that it would go exactly where I was pointing it rather into the hedge. There are three drive modes, Dynamica, Natural and Advanced Effciency, and it makes a nicely judged noise that recalls the warbling note of a classic Alfa flat four engine.
It’ll do 62mph in 5.9 seconds, but really it’s the chassis that pleases most. That diff and the fact that the Junior weighs 1,590kg – light for an electric car – combine to deliver far and away the most convincing Alfa Romeo for a generation. Possibly two. The Elettrica is no less enjoyable or sure-footed, despite its lesser power output.
Alfa claims a range fully charged of 250 miles on the Elettrica, 215 on the Veloce, both of which will drop in real world use or when the weather’s chilly. But this isn’t a car designed to do big mileages, and the Junior will most likely live in the city or serve as a second car. Nor does it skimp on the interior or equipment; the launch edition gets fabulous electrically adjustable seats, tactile Alcantara trim, LED matrix headlights, and useful, user-friendly infotainment. There’s room for four, despite its size, and a decent boot.
Prices start at £33,695 rising to £42,295 for the Veloce. And this time there’s no need to factor in the cost of rose-tinted spectacles.
