Alfa Romeo has revealed the new JUNIOR compact available with a fully electric powertrain, sporty at heart, compact in size and Italian at first sight.
JUNIOR is inclusive and offers everyone the opportunity to access a distinctive and attractive car. Its mission is to win over a new generation through a new Alfa Romeo design language. Remaining steadfast is its innate aptitude for sportiness, a trait that has animated Alfa Romeo since its foundation in 1910, with ‘sportiness’ intended as an engaging driving experience in everyday life.
In a segment populated by sporty versions derived from generalist models, JUNIOR is a cool and unique object, combining a captivating style with the most advanced technology in terms of comfort, connectivity, and driving dynamics. JUNIOR features uncompromising practicality, as evidenced by the largest boot among premium competitors with 400 litres of capacity. JUNIOR is also available in hybrid and electric, without distinctions in terms of aesthetics or equipment, because the only thing that matters is the fact it is 100% Alfa Romeo.
JUNIOR is available in ELETTRICA form, with two fully electric powertrains with two power variants offering 156 hp and a range of up to 250 miles, as well as a sportier 240-hp VELOCE, the epitome of the Alfa Romeo sporting DNA. The design evolves in the distinctive features that create an immediate emotional connection. After all, an Alfa Romeo has always been aimed at those looking for a car not only to be a ‘means of transport,’ rather for a symbiosis, a bond that can bring out authentic emotions.
EXTERIOR DESIGN
New JUNIOR encompass the uniqueness of Alfa Romeo with an original and modern Made in Italy design. JUNIOR is expressed in balance of proportions, purity of lines and attention to the quality of the surfaces. The proportions of New Alfa Romeo JUNIOR are set out with stylistic features relating to tradition, such as the limited overhangs, the muscular wheel arches and the iconic ‘kamm tail,’ a reference to the legendary Giulia TZ.
The simplicity of Italian style conceals one of the most complex creative processes in the industry: car design. Alfa Romeo JUNIOR boasts a strong identity, made up of a limited number of features that include the legendary scudetto shield, in the Leggenda and Progresso variants, perhaps the most famous and recognisable signature in the automotive world. A contribution is made to its powerful personality by the bold look of the front, with 3+3, adaptive Full LED Matrix headlights. The Alfa Romeo style is characterised by the quality of the surfaces, which create rich and harmonious reflections through distinct volumetric contrasts.
INTERIOR DESIGN
The same inspiration of pure sportiness can be found inside Alfa Romeos' latest car, where the standout features are the Italian attention to every detail, the use of the finest materials and the placement of all the controls within the driver’s reach. The instrument panel and its historical ‘Cannocchiale’ design creates that direct visual connection and persuades you to wrap your hands around the steering wheel, start the engine, and make the best of a unique driving experience.
In the middle of the cluster, the standout feature is a fully digital 10.25-inch TFT screen, to access the car’s data and the settings for the driving technologies. In the middle of the dashboard and oriented towards the driver, a 10.25-inch touchscreen system developed to work with widgets, graphic components designed for intuitive interaction with all the features, which can be customised via quick and easy drag and drop. Every user can create their own homepage, where each of the car’s features is an app in itself.
COMFORT
Choosing JUNIOR equates to an unwillingness to compromise between solutions based on the centrality of the person sitting in the driver’s seat and on the utmost well-being of all the passengers. Despite its compact size, Alfa Romeo JUNIOR boasts the largest boot in its class for a full battery electric vehicle, with a load capacity of as much as 400 litres. JUNIOR also comes with exclusive features such as the convenient cable storage compartment located under the bonnet.
To increase the comfort even further, JUNIOR offers a series of driver assistance features including the option of Level 2 autonomous driving, optional 360-degree parking sensors and 180-degree rear camera that monitors the surrounding area, for an innovative and practical semi-autonomous parking system. JUNIOR can also include proximity access technology, to open and close your car quickly and easily by coming closer to or moving away from the vehicle, with no need for the customer to take any action.
DRIVING DYNAMICS
Building on the lowest weight in the segment and optimal mass distribution, JUNIOR enters the world of electric cars like a true Alfa Romeo. The team that coordinated the development of the driving dynamics is the same one that developed the Giulia GTA at the Balocco testing centre in Vercelli province, with the clear aim of the new JUNIOR achieving best-in-class road holding. This has been made possible by specific technical solutions in the VELOCE version, featuring the most direct steering in the segment (14.6), especially calibrated to be extremely precise and to enhance its exceptional road holding qualities.
CONNECTIVITY
Alfa Romeo interprets the use of software and connectivity to enhance the driver's experience, which remains the focus. JUNIOR therefore comes with the most advanced connected technology, to ensure maximum comfort. EV Routing is an innovative connected system built into the navigator that manages the customer's charging needs. All customers need to do is set up their destination, then the navigation system automatically calculates any charging stops needed along the route, with access provided to over 600,000 charge points, the most extensive network in Europe. Real-time traffic, battery and driving style monitoring makes it possible to rely on EV Routing for a driving experience free from charging anxiety.
Alfa Romeo JUNIOR is equipped with Alfa Connect Services, the tool that offers advanced onboard connectivity and a range of services for maximum safety and comfort. Thanks to over-the-air (OTA) technology, the car's maps and software are always kept up to date. The various functions that make the onboard experience the best ever include My Navigation, consisting of apps to remotely search for destinations and points of interest (PoI), as well as real-time alerts on traffic, weather and speed cameras.
Available via the My Alfa Connect smartphone app, customers can also interact with the car using My Remote to check vehicle location, control of certain parameters (speed and area) and notifications if these are not respected. It also allows users to control functions such as opening/closing doors or flashing the lights via smartphone or smartwatch. E-Control also offers the option to remotely manage start-up and stopping, to schedule charging, or if necessary, to heat or cool the interior before getting into the vehicle.
Another major innovation is the integration of the Hey Alfa virtual assistant and ChatGPT (A.I.) which use voice recognition to give you a useful, discreet ‘copilot’ on your travels, for information, advice and to meet all the driver’s needs, similar to the product on alternative Stellantis vehicles including Peugeot and DS.