Alfa Romeo’s all-electric SUV – the Milano – has just been renamed to Alfa Romeo Junior. Right after the debut of the compact SUV, an Italian government official declared that the use of the name “Milano” – chosen by Alfa Romeo for its first all-electric model – is banned by law. The name “Milano” was initially chosen by the brand to pay tribute to the Italian city of Milan.
Alfa Romeo believes that the name “Milano” meets all legal requirements. However, it has decided to change it from “Milano” to “Junior” in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding.
Alfa Romeo says the “Junior” nameplate has been inspired by the brand’s iconic GT 1300 Junior which debuted in Balocco back in 1966. Like the classic itself which was made to attract younger and newer audience, the all-new all-electric Alfa Romeo Junior also marks an all-new generation of fully electric Alfa Romeo models.
Alfa Romeo CEO, Jean-Philippe Imparato said, “We are perfectly aware that this moment will remain engraved in the history of the Brand. It’s a great responsibility but at the same time it’s an exciting moment. The choice of the name Alfa Romeo Junior is completely natural, as it is strongly linked to the history of the Brand and has been among our favourites and among the public’s favourites since the beginning.”
“As a team, we are choosing once again to share our passion for the Brand and make the product and our customers the priority. We decided to change the name, even though we know that we are not required to do so, because we want to preserve the positive emotion that our products have always generated and avoid any type of controversy. The attention to our new sports compact that we’ve received the past few days is quite exciting as we had an unprecedented number of visits to the online configurator, causing the website to crash for a couple hours,” the CEO added.
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Italian Alfa Romeo Dealers Association President, Stefano Odorici said, “Alfa Romeo is an inclusive Brand, which welcomes and generates passion and positive emotions. You can clearly see it when I look into the eyes of our customers when they come to see, test, purchase and collect Alfa Romeo cars in our dealerships. For this reason, we welcome the decision taken by the company to change the name of the car from Milano to Alfa Romeo Junior in light of the latest news, which could affect the enthusiasm and the enormous attention that the new car is receiving from our customers recently. Alfa Romeo Junior, like Milano, are both beautiful names that have their roots in the history of the Brand. It is no coincidence that they were immediately among the public’s favourites.”
Having made its debut less than a week ago as the Italian marque’s first electric vehicle (EV), the Alfa Romeo Junior (formerly Milano) is built on Stellantis’ Common Modular Platform (CMP) and is offered with two all-electric powertrain options. Just in case you are not ready for EVs just yet, the Junior can also be had with a mild hybrid powertrain.
The dispute surrounding its original name – “Milano” – was circulated around the fact that it isn’t produced locally in Italy, but rather at the Tychy plant in Poland. It is also the first Alfa model to be entirely produced outside of Italy.
“A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by Italian law,” said the Minister of Economic Development of Italy, Adolfo Urso in Turin. This is referring to 2003 legislation that targets “Italian sounding” products that falsely claim to be Italian.
“This law stipulates that you cannot give indications that mislead consumers. So a car called Milano must be produced in Italy. Otherwise, it gives a misleading indication which is not allowed under Italian law,” Urso added.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said producing the “Milano” in Poland rather than in Italy will help reduce its retail price by 10,000 Euros (approx. RM51k). As a result, the Alfa Romeo Junior bears a starting price of under 30,000 Euros (approx. RM153k).
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