Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica review 2025

Make and model: Alfa Romeo Elettrica Speciale
Description: Small-medium electric SUV
Price range: from £35,705

Alfa Romeo says: “The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica elevates your driving experience with superior driving dynamics, great agility and lightness on the road.”

We say: The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica is a small electric SUV with stylish looks. It’s easy to drive and offers decent battery range for most needs.

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Introduction

This is the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica, Alfa’s first EV. If you don’t want an electric model, there’s also a Junior Ibrida (hybrid), which is powered by a combination of a petrol engine and electric motor. That one arrives in the UK shortly.

The Junior is the latest car to be hailed as the starting point for a new Alfa Romeo revival since… er, well, every Alfa Romeo model of the last 20-odd years. It has become a familiar refrain from the company, usually following the disappointing results of the previous Alfa Romeo revival.

The new model pitches Alfa into one of the most competitive segments of the new car market – small electric SUVs are currently popping up at showrooms everywhere. On one hand, that puts Alfa into a segment that’s enjoying huge amounts of interest; on the other hand, it means a lot of competition for the Junior – the car has to be good to thrive in this sector.

We spent a week with an Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica Speciale to find out just how good it is.

What is it?

Alfa Romeo is part of the giant Stellantis company, which owns more than a dozen car brands around the globe. As such, the Alfa Romeo Junior uses the shared small SUV underpinnings from Stellantis, making the Junior Elettrica a close relative to the Abarth 600e and Fiat 600e, DS 3 E-Tense, Jeep Avenger, Peugeot e-2008, Vauxhall Mokka Electric and upcoming Citroën ë-C3 Aircross – while the Junior Ibrida is related to the petrol versions of the above models. Thankfully, Alfa’s designers have managed to retain some of the company’s traditional styling cues on a small SUV, such as the heart-shaped grille and telephone dial-shaped alloy wheels (for younger readers, telephones were once large things fixed to one position and had a large central dial for ringing up another phone…)

This size of car is referred to as a B-segment SUV, which means a small SUV with fairly limited rear passenger space and a small-ish boot. Similar cars from other brands include the Ford Puma Gen-E, Honda e:Ny1, Hyundai Kona Electric, Kia EV3, Mazda MX-30, Skoda Elroq and Volvo EX30.

With both petrol and electric versions of the Alfa Romeo Junior available, the Elettrica model doesn’t really get the usual packaging benefits of a dedicated EV, which usually have a bit more space in the rear cabin and boot.

What do you get for your money?

There are currently four models in the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica line-up – three with a lower power output and a range-topping version with significantly more performance.

The range kicks off at £34K with the entry-level Elettrica, followed by the Elettrica Speciale at just under £36K and a special-edition model called the Intensa at £39K. All of these models have the same electric motor, producing 115kw (156hp) of power through the front wheels. The top-spec Veloce model starts at just over £42K and bumps the power up to 207kW (280hp), still going through the front wheels.

All versions are supplied by a 54kWh battery that gives an official range of 255-ish miles for the lower-power versions, dropping to 200 miles for the Veloce. As with most EVs, your mileage will vary depending on how and where you drive – city driving gives better range, while motorway driving decreases it.

As is generally the way on most new cars, you get a large (ten-inch) central touchscreen for controlling most of the car’s functions, paired with another ten-inch screen in front of the driver for speed and driving information. The base and Intensa models don’t offer integrated satnav, but most people are likely to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto anyway so it’s not a big deal.

All the key safety kit is standard on all models, although Speciale and Veloce models get a few upgraded extras like traffic jam assist and lane guidance for the adaptive cruise control. Speciale gets part faux leather upholstery, while the driver’s seat is electrically adjustable and even includes a massage function.

As well as significantly more power, the Veloce model gets additional kit over the lower-spec models. The alloy wheels are bumped up to 20-inch designs, rather than the 18-inch versions on the lower-spec models. It also gets mechanical upgrades to brakes and suspension, revised steering and a limited-slip differential for better handling and an improved driving experience overall. There are also some visual differences like a black roof, dark-tinted rear windows, revised bumpers with sportier styling, and a few other cosmetic bits.

Expert tips

• Intensa is a new special-edition model that gets some distinctive trim bits
• Veloce has significantly more performance, but that reduces the battery range
• No Euro NCAP safety rating as yet (May 2025)

What’s the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica like inside?

Stepping inside the cabin, the Alfa Romeo Junior mixes traditional Alfa styling cues with a modern – if conventional – layout. The driver’s instrument cluster has a shade that resembles Alfa’s traditional twin-dial layout but, in reality, it simply covers a letterbox-shaped digital screen for speed, range and other readouts.

The central touchscreen is slightly angled towards the driver, but the rest of the dashboard around it isn’t, so it sort of sticks out in a way that looks odd. Some of the plastics look a bit cheap and hard, rather than soft and squishy. And on top of that, most of the switchgear is also shared with a multitude of Stellantis products – including a Vauxhall Combo van – which rather detracts from any pretence of a premium experience.

The good news is that, unlike plenty of Alfas of old, the Junior’s cabin feels solid and very well screwed together. It’s also welcome to have a proper row of real buttons for the climate control, and there’s a nice touch in having little illuminated serpents (the legendary Biscione of Milano) in the centre of the air vents.

As you’d expect for a car this size, the front seats have adequate room for even tall adults, but it’s quite tight in the back. Two adults will cope for shorter journeys, but really it’s more suited to kids. Unlike dedicated EVs, there’s a hefty tunnel running down the centre line of the floor, so the middle passenger in the rear will have to straddle that. Headroom, however, is better than expected.

Boot space is on par with most rivals in this class, with a claimed 400 litres. It’s a fairly regular shape, so generally quite useful although the loading lip is quite high for loading heavy cases. There’s a small frunk under the bonnet, which is likely to be where you keep your charging cables when not in use.

Expert tips

• Base model doesn’t get dedicated satnav, but all have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you can use your own maps.
• Tight for legroom in the back, and you probably don’t want to be using the centre seat for longer journeys.
• It’s a bit of a letdown inside, overall.

What’s the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica like to drive?

As a legendary driver’s brand, Alfa Romeo has always placed a lot of weight on the driving experience in its cars. Does the Junior Elettrica live up to the standards of many petrol-powered sporty saloons and coupés from over the years?

Well, not really. But then, you probably wouldn’t expect it to. After all, it’s an electric SUV that shares its basic architecture with assorted Peugeots, Citroëns and Vauxhalls. So, Alfa fans, lower your expectations.

The standard 115kW (156hp) motor in the Junior Elettrica Speciale provides plenty of performance for most of your day-to-day driving needs. Acceleration from rest, and in the cut-and-thrust of urban driving, is good even with passenger and luggage on board. As with most EVs, you notice a drop-off in acceleration at motorway speeds as the car reaches the top of its operating window (EVs generally have a lower top speed than petrol cars, although still comfortably beyond the 70mph national speed limit).

Alfa Romeo has tweaked the steering and handling of the Junior compared to the other Stellantis models, which does help it to feel more agile and nimble to drive. It also feels quite stable, with less roll than other SUVs. Pleasingly, the engineers have managed to maintain a decent ride comfort, which isn’t always the case when you try to sharpen the handling.

Expert tips

• Good balance of ride comfort and sharp handling
• 115kW motor fine for most needs, but 207kW notably better if you want extra performance
• Despite sporting pretensions, it’s certainly not a sports car

How safe is the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica?

As of May 2025, the Alfa Romeo Junior has not been assessed by Euro NCAP so we can’t give you a definitive answer of how safe it is (Euro NCAP testing assesses new cars over and above minimum legal safety requirements). If and when this testing takes place, we’ll update the information and safety score here.

The Junior Elettrica is kitted out with plenty of latest-generation ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) kit, and they mostly work well enough – although we thankfully didn’t need to test them in genuine emergency conditions. Stellantis still has significant issues with its speed limit sign recognition, as the system picks up the wrong signs and ignores the right signs on far too many occasions. This affects every Stellantis car (and van) we’ve driven, so the company clearly hasn’t got a handle on making it work well enough.

As with all new cars, you still need to deactivate certain systems – speed limit warnings and so on – every time you start the car if you don’t want to be beeped and bonged at for your entire journey, but this is no more annoying or difficult to do than in any other car.

Expert tips

• No Euro NCAP safety rating as of May 2025
• Speed limit recognition camera is rubbish (as on most Stellantis products)

Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica economy, battery range and charging

There’s only one battery available to cover the entire Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica line-up at this time, which is a 54kWh unit that gives an official UK/EU lab-tested driving range of about 250-ish miles with the 115kW motor (a few more miles in the base model, a few less in the Intensa and Speciale), and a range of about 200 miles in the much-more-powerful Veloce.

Knock 20% off both numbers (so about 200 miles and 160 miles, respectively) for cold conditions or harder driving, but if you’re happy to be gentle with your right foot and spend most of your time in urban areas, you should get close to these numbers.

Electrical efficiency (the EV equivalent of fuel economy in a petrol or diesel car) is very good, rating an A-grade according to our unique Expert Rating Index. A heat pump is standard on all models, which helps battery range in very cold conditions. Many other small electric SUVs don’t have this as standard, so this is excellent news.

At public chargers, the Junior Elettrica can accept a maximum charging speed of 100kW, which is about average for the sector. Assuming you are plugged into a 100kW charger, that means that you can get a charge from 10% to 80% in a bit over half an hour. If you’re charging at home with a 7kW wallbox, a full charge from 0-100% will take a bit over eight hours.

The charging port is in the left-rear corner of the car, so you’ll want to reverse into charging bays rather than driving in forwards. If you’re charging at home, the Junior is short enough that your cable will probably reach the charging plug regardless of which way round you park.

Expert tips

• Official battery range of 200-258 miles, depending on specification. Around town, this is probably achievable but motorway driving will reduce this significantly.
• Driving range should be plenty for its intended customer base (average household mileage in the UK is about 120 miles/week).
• Heat pump is standard, which helps maintain driving range in very cold conditions
• The charging port is in the left-rear of the car, which means reverse parking in most charging bays will be better.
• Comes standard with the usual Type-2-to-Type-2 charging cable for plugging into a dedicated charging unit, but not a Type-2-to-Type-3 cable for plugging into a standard three-point electricity plug.

Verdict

There are a couple of questions here. Firstly, is the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica a good small SUV? And secondly, is it a good Alfa Romeo?

To the first, the answer is yes. The Junior Elettrica is certainly as good as most other small electric SUVs for the job of ferrying passengers around, especially if your needs favour local driving rather than frequent long journeys. It’s nicer to drive than many similar EVs, it’s pretty comfortable in most driving situations, the styling generally hits the mark and the standard equipment levels are on the money. On the flip side, cabin space and overall practicality are compromised compared to a purpose-built EV like the Kia EV3.

But is it a good Alfa Romeo? Well, that depends on your preconceptions of what an Alfa Romeo ‘should’ be. It’s not a sports saloon or coupé, which is all that many traditional Alfa fans are interested in, but then that’s pretty much a dying market for all manufacturers. The reality is that customers don’t want those sorts of cars, so Alfa can either get on board the bandwagon or get run over by it. Porsche, Lotus and other sports car manufacturers have already made that choice, so it’s not exactly shocking for Alfa to do the same. And if you do accept that, you can’t then complain that an electric SUV doesn’t look or handle like a petrol-engined sports car.

Expert recommendations

• If you’re happy to trade a modicum of practicality for a dash of style, the Junior could suit you perfectly
• Can’t confirm safety performance until Euro NCAP conducts its tests
• Speciale trim level looks best value of the three 115kW versions

Similar cars

Abarth 600e | Citroën ë-C3 Aircross | DS 3 E-Tense | Fiat 600e | Ford Puma Gen-E | Honda e:Ny1 | Hyundai Kona Electric | Jeep Avenger | Kia EV3 | Mazda MX-30 | MG S5 EV | Omoda E5 | Peugeot e-2008 | Renault Mégane E-Tech | Smart #1 | Toyota Urban Cruiser | Vauxhall Mokka Electric

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