Introduction to the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Electtrica
If you've had a peruse of the Alfa Romeo section of this very website, you'll already have seen our road tests of the new Alfa Junior in its most powerful electric form (the 280hp Veloce model, as driven by James Fossdyke right here) and in its hybrid, or 'Ibrida' because everything sounds cooler in Italian, form, (as driven by Matt Robinson, here).
So, if we consider the Ibrida as the entry-level Junior, and the Veloce is clearly the range-topper, at least for now, then this - the standard electric version of the Junior, called the Electtrica by Alfa, and no that's not a typo - is the one that's sandwiched between those two points. It's the Prosciutto between two slices of Pane Toscano.
Sorry, I didn't mean to come over all Italian there. Driving Alfas does that to me. Indeed, it tends to do it to many others, as this is a brand suffused with the sort of rosy-tinged nostalgia and passion that many other marques would almost kill for. Few brands are as adored, in the actual romantic sense, as Alfa Romeo, and yet few brands have had quite such a roller-coaster history when it comes to success and failure.
Without delving too deeply into Alfa's past, the Junior arrives at a critical point for the brand (and a quick glance at that history will tell you that Alfa has seen many, many other critical points). Sales have certainly faltered as models such as the impressive, but increasingly outdated, Giulia and Stelvio slip from shopping lists.
The Tonale SUV - fun but flawed, in the classic Alfa manner - has done OK, but this Junior is hugely significant. It's Alfa's first car that's available in fully electric form, and it hits the market just at the point where Alfa's overlords at the Stellantis group have cleared the financial decks and given Alfa a budget to work with for apparently the next decade.
The Junior gets off to a fairly good start, style-wise. The overall shape is stubby and low-slung by SUV standards, and our Speciale-spec car (a €4k premium over the most basic model) came with the 'Progresso Scudetto V-Shield' grille, which is basically a silhouette of the Alfa badge writ large in the centre of the nose. Sadly, EU regulations have outlawed the use of an offset numberplate to really emphasise that deep-V grille, but with the slim, piercing headlights, the front of the Junior looks good, helped by the fact that Alfa thoughtfully provided us a test car finished in traditional 'Red Brera' paint.
At the back it's a little less successful, as it's hard to reconcile the chunkiness of an SUV with the traditional sleekness of an Alfa Romeo, but there are some nice details, such as the way the LED brake lights sweep up and over the edges of the boot, creating an almost-ducktail-spoiler effect (and also looking rather like the rear of the Kia EV6).
The interior is good, but has a slight case of mishmash, thanks to lots of borrowed components from other Stellantis brands. The touchscreen is as fiddly and awkward as most, but at least Alfa is one of the brands sensible enough to keep some physical buttons for heating and air conditioning. Alfa? Sensible? My Gran's Alfasud had a heating fan control on the indicator column stalk...
There are no such ergonomic snafus here though, and the optional high-backed bucket seats and the steering wheel with its part-suedette rim give off all the right Alfa signals. Overall quality is excellent, although it's a shame that the digital instruments under their hooded binnacle don't look as gorgeous as those used in Alfa's larger Tonale SUV. One delightful touch, however, is that the tiny Alfa 'snake' logo in the centre of the air vents is subtly backlit at night.
However, an utter highlight is the fitting of those optional bucket seats, made by racing equipment company Sabelt, They're slim-fitting and hip-hugging but also incredibly comfortable and supportive. These lovely seats do eat into rear legroom though, and the rear legroom isn't great to begin with.
Pros & cons of the 2025 Alfa Romeo Electtrica
Pros: Style, fun factor, good pricing
Cons: Short on real-world range, tiny back seats
Irish pricing and rivals of the 2025 Alfa Romeo Electtrica
• Alfa Junior starts at €34,995
• Pricey options
• Few direct premium-badge rivals
The Junior is the most accessible Alfa Romeo in years, certainly since the 147 hatchback left us. It has a starting price of €34,995 once you take the grants and rebates into account, which is fairly affordable, certainly for a brand which once vied with BMW and Mercedes in terms of premium appeal.
For that, you get a compact SUV (it's closer to a hatchback really) with a 51kWh battery and a 156hp electric motor driving the front wheels. If that sounds familiar, it's exactly the same platform and electro-mechanical package as used by the rest of the compact SUV lineup within the Stellantis group, including the Jeep Avenger, the Fiat 600e, the Opel Mokka Electric and the Peugeot E-2008.
Alfa will have to work hard to convince us that the Junior - originally to be called Milano until some Italian politicians kicked up a fuss about the fact that it's actually built in Poland - truly deserves that famous badge (the coat of arms of the city of Milan) on its nose.
Standard equipment includes a 10.25-inch touchscreen with smartphone mirroring, a synthetic-leather-wrapped steering wheel, 18-inch alloy wheels, adaptive cruise control, selectable driving modes, rear parking sensors, a heat pump and single-zone air conditioning.
Our Speciale test car, which has a starting price of €38,950, also has heated seats, a rear-view camera, a real-leather steering wheel, a six-speaker sound system, privacy glass, diamond-cut 18-inch alloys, a powered tailgate, an upgraded adaptive cruise control system and wireless smartphone mirroring software.
To that in our test car had been added a 'Sports Interior Pack' which includes proper bucket seats with electric adjustment, a sportier looking steering wheel and alloy pedals; and a 'Tech Pack' which includes a frameless self-dimming rear-view mirror, LED Matrix headlights and all-round parking sensors.
Oddly, the Junior Electtrica has few direct rivals, at least ones with premium badges. There is the Audi Q2, but that's not available in electric form, while there is of course an all-electric BMW iX1, but that's considerably more expensive, and a larger car altogether. Ditto the Mercedes EQA.
At least until the new Ford Puma Gen-E arrives on the scene, most of the Junior's direct rivals come from within the Stellantis group, the very same Jeep Avenger, Fiat 600e, Opel Mokka Electric and Peugeot E-2008 which share its platform and electric setup.
There's also the Kia EV3, which starts at a similar price, but which is a very different sort of car - far more practical, but far less sporty - and that's the same story for the Hyundai Kona Electric, which is significantly cheaper, in basic form, than the Junior, yet which is huge inside by comparison.
In some ways, the new MGS5 EV is a good rival to the Alfa, joining it in the classic sports car badge brigade, but which is also much roomier inside, and should be more sharply priced once Irish pricing is announced.
Performance of the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Electtrica on Irish roads
• Gets 156hp motor up front
• Three driving modes
• Steering is a highlight
As with so many electric cars, the Junior is heavier than it looks, although a kerb weight of 1,545kg isn't bad going by EV standards. It does mean that performance from the 156hp electric motor is a little smothered (imagine having 156hp in an original 1960s Alfa Spider, with its sub-one-tonne kerb weight), but 0-100km/h in 9.0 seconds isn't too bad.
As ever, the electric motor does its best work from standstill or walking pace up to about 60km/h, where acceleration feels brisk, and it tails off a bit after that. If you want snappier responses, you can tweak Alfa's DNA driving mode selector (Dynamic, Natural and Advanced Efficiency) to the D setting, but to be honest the difference isn't all that great.
What is great, though, is the Junior's steering. It's here that the Alfa really manages to separate itself from its Stellantis group brethren, as all of those have steering that can be simply described as 'light.' In the Junior, there's enough power assistance that you wouldn't call it heavy, but I'd say around 90 per cent of this car's appeal is down to its steering.
The Junior is equipped with wonderful steering feel. In absolute terms, it doesn't feed back info to your palms in the way that my Gran's Alfasud would have done, thanks to the smothering effects of electric power steering and wider tyres, but it manages to somehow feel like it does.
Remember the 1999 film The Matrix, where a character trapped in a computer programme knows that the virtual steak he's eating is all ones and zeros, but the simulation is good enough that it still tastes and feels like Iowa corn-fed beef? Yes, that's the Junior's steering. As soon as you turn that wheel, with its perfectly proportioned rim, more than a degree or so, you feel plugged into the car, part of its synapses, and you start to have... fun.
It's quite like the new Renault 5 E-Tech electric in that respect. If you were to drive either of those electric cars side-by-side with, say, a 1996 Lotus Elise, both EVs would be given a thorough schooling in the nuances of steering feedback and feel, and yet both have an undeniable, almost indefinable sense of something coming back from the front wheels. A sense of connection and enthusiasm that may well be a simulation of the Lotus' real deal, but which is nonetheless hugely enjoyable.
The downside is the ride quality, which is downright stiff. It's fine at cruising speed, but around town you're really going to feel the bumps.
Down by the stubby drive selector switch is a 'B' button which calls up extra brake energy regeneration, but it's not actually one-pedal driving, which is fine by me as I hate one-pedal setups.
The only shame, really, is that Alfa hasn't yet figured out a way to truly recreate its classic four-cylinder 'Twin Spark' engine noise for the electric age.
Running costs of the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Electtrica
• Small battery means quick charging
• Range drops a lot on motorway runs
• Impressive five-year warranty
Having a small battery (51kWh is pretty small by current standards) means a relatively short range. Alfa says that the Junior Electtrica can go for 410km on a full charge, but in mixed real-world conditions you're going to get closer to 350km really.
The official 15kWh/100km efficiency figure is achievable in real-world driving, but I'd say most of the time you're looking at closer to 17-18kWh/100km. Motorway driving really seems to take a lot of the puff out of the Alfa's battery - figure on getting no more than 220km if you're cruising at 120km/h.
Nonetheless, topping up the Alfa's battery from flat, if you're on a good night-rate package, could cost as little as €5.60. You certainly wouldn't get 350km out of €5.60 worth of petrol.
Rapid charging isn't the Alfa's forte, as it tops out at 100kW on DC outlets, but that's still good enough, in theory, to get a 20-80 per cent charge in 27 minutes.
If you're buying an Alfa Junior right now, you'll get a five-year warranty, and Alfa will throw in a complimentary home charger, supplied by Energia. There are also inclusive service plans, which allow you to spread the cost of your regular servicing.
How popular is the Alfa Romeo Junior in Ireland?
• Junior taking on the might of the compact SUV class
• Alfa sold only 43 cars last year in Ireland
• Plans for expansion
Alfa? Popular in Ireland? It really was, once. Way back in the mists of lost time (all right, back in 2000...) Alfa was one of Ireland's car sales big dogs, as buyers flocked to the gorgeous and affordable 156 saloon to the point where that one car held a one per cent market share.
After that, Alfa fell off a cliff in Irish sales terms, to the point where last year the brand sold only 43 new vehicles in this country. However, there are hopes for a revival. Alfa currently only has three dealers in Ireland, but that number should start to expand, especially as the hybrid version of the Junior reaches these shores - as hybrid power is still what most buyers want.
There are also new Giulia and Stelvio models on the way in the next 18 months, and both of those will be available with hybrid and fully electric power.
The Junior has stiff competition, not just from other electric models but also hybrid-engined rivals, but here's hoping that enough Irish buyers take heed of the legend that you're not a true car enthusiast unless you've owned an Alfa.
Verdict - Should you buy the 2025 Alfa Romeo Electtrica?
As ever with an electric car recommendation, this depends on certain factors. Do you have a driveway where you can fit a home charger? Are you prepared to take the time and effort to carefully plan your longer journeys? If so, then the Junior Electtrica gets the thumbs up. It's certainly one of the most enjoyable and engaging electric cars to drive, it looks good and it's hopefully the start of the latest Alfa revival.
FAQs About the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior
Is the Alfa Romeo Junior only electric?
Nope. There are two electric versions of the Junior - this 156hp model we're testing here called the Electtrica, and a more powerful 280hp version called the Veloce. Then there are two hybrid versions, based around a turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol engine, one with front-wheel drive and one with four-wheel drive.
What kind of battery does the Alfa Junior use?
The Junior has a lithium-ion battery with a useable capacity of 51kWh.
How safe is the Alfa Romeo Junior?
The Junior hasn't yet been tested by Euro NCAP but it's sibling, the Jeep Avenger (same basic structure, same battery and motor) has been tested, and the results are mixed. The Avenger scored three stars out of five, which isn't great. It scored 79 per cent for adult occupant protection, 70 per cent for child occupants, 59 per cent for vulnerable road users and 53 per cent for its active safety systems.
Want to know more about the Alfa Romeo Junior?
If there's anything about the Alfa Romeo Junior we've not covered, or you'd like help in choosing between it and other cars, you can avail of our (completely free) expert advice service via the Ask Us Anything page.
