Alfa Romeo Giulietta vs Farizon V7E

What's the difference?

So much right and some things not quite right – the Giulietta has the Alfa Romeo mix of highs and lows which the brand is famous for. There’s no mistaking that this is a unique and sexy looking car, with the practicality of a five-door hatch plus impressive handling and performance.  More heart than head decision here though it seems, but romantic Alfa enthusiasts should adore it.

These are early days for Farizon in Australia and the V7E is indicative of that. Although it offers attractive sub-$54K drive-away pricing, peppy performance and substantial payload/cargo volume ratings, it lacks refinement in ride and handling, elements of cabin design and active safety calibration which detract from the driving experience. Whether this newcomer’s negatives outweigh its positives, though, only a potential buyer can decide.

Alfa Romeo couldn't design a boring car even if it was handed a picture of a Toyota Camry and told to copy it or else. The Giulietta is no exception.

There's the deep 'V' grille shared with the new Giulia sedan and 4C sports cars that make up the current Alfa model line-up. There's the bug-eye headlights with pretty inset LEDs and the chiselled bonnet, a side profile which looks like that of a mini Porsche Cayenne and a cute-but-tough bottom with its elegant taillights and twin exhausts.

The latest update brought a honeycomb mesh grille and a slightly different design to the headlight and LED foglight surrounds. The tail pipes were also given a styling tweak, so too were the alloy wheels.

Despite its coupe looks it's actually a five-door hatch with ‘hidden' handles for the rear doors.

The cabin saw new materials and finishes added. The Veloce had the Alfa Romeo logo stitched into the integrated headrests, shiny sports pedals, and lashings of faux carbon fibre trim on the doors and dash.

You can tell a Veloce from the outside by the red Brembo brake calipers behind the front wheels, 18-inch alloys, its chunkier exhaust tips poking out of the diffuser, red pin-striping to the front and rear bumpers, and the black window surrounds.

Okay, how big or small is it? Here's some dimensions for you. The Guilietta is 4351mm long, 1798mm wide, 1465mm tall and the Veloce with its sports suspension is 9mm lower than the others with 102mm of ground clearance.

Compared to say a Mazda3 hatch the Giulietta is 109mm shorter end-to-end and only 3mm wider. But if you're considering an Giulietta why are you looking at the Mazda3 anyway? That would be sensible - Like comparing Cancer Council hats to top hats.

The V7E rides on a 3200mm wheelbase and features minimalist yet purposeful squared-off styling that’s a key factor in its big load volume.

Its light and airy cabin has a slimline dash design that’s free of protrusions to allow ‘walk through’ access from either door, which is handy for delivery work. It also features physical ‘piano key’ buttons for the climate controls, which are preferable to more fiddly touchscreen prompts.

The cabin also presents a tasteful blend of colours and surface finishes including the seats, although anecdotal evidence suggests the light grey tone of their fabric trim would be prone to showing grime and stains over time in a hard-working van.

At first glance the passenger seat appears to be a two-passenger bench but only one seatbelt is provided. Therefore, what would normally be the backrest for a centre passenger is purely vertical storage for the fold-down centre armrest (see Practicality).

Beautiful things tend to favour form over function. The Giuletta tries to do both and succeeds…but also fails in places.

Successes first: despite its coupe looks it's actually a five-door hatch with ‘hidden' handles for the rear doors placed up at window level near the C-pillar. So good is the two-door disguise that our photographer climbed into the back seat through the front door.

Rear legroom is a bit tight back there and at 191cm I can sit behind my driving position but I'd hate for me to be sitting behind me because my knees are digging hard into the seat back.

Headroom isn't much chop either and I literally can't sit in the back seat and hold my head high – a combination of that sloping roofline and the optional double sunroof reduces the head space.

A major practicality fail is the lack of storage throughout the cabin.

Ordering drive-thru is possibly out of the question.

My wife's phone kept mysteriously appearing in the footwell every time we left it in the glove box, like there was a tear in the time-space fabric, but then we realised it was slipping through a gap.

There's no centre armrest storage bin in the front – actually there's no centre armrest. There is a pop-up hidey-hole on the dash but with only enough room for a pair of sunglasses.

The two cup holders in the front are small. It's safe to say that unless you have somebody with hands at the ready, ordering drive-thru is possibly out of the question.

Or if you have long arms and can reach the fold down armrest in the back there are two decent sized cup holders along with a small storage space. There are no bottle holders any of the doors, but there is fortunately room for a phone and wallet because there isn't space for them anywhere else.

But wait, the Giulietta is saved from a total storage fail by a large-for-the-class 350-litre boot. That's 70 litres bigger than a Toyota Corolla's and only 14 litres less than the Mazda3.  We could fit the pram, the shopping and the rest of the gear which goes with a military operation such as a trip to the park with a toddler in there.

Its 1942kg kerb weight is relatively light for a full-electric commercial which combined with its 3150kg GVM results in a substantial 1208kg payload rating.

However, it’s only rated to tow up to 1000kg of braked trailer and given Farizon does not quote a GCM figure (how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time), we can’t confirm if it can carry its maximum payload while towing its maximum trailer weight.

Internally,the cargo bay is more than 2.8 metres (2865mm) long, 1690mm wide and 1435mm high, which combined with 1251mm between the rear wheel housings allows it to carry up to two standard Aussie pallets or up to three Euro pallets.

And its impressive 6.95 cubic metres of load volume is larger than mainstream mid-size rivals including the Ford Transit Custom SWB (5.8), Hyundai Staria Load (4.9) and segment-leading Toyota HiAce LWB (6.2).

The cargo bay is accessed via sliding doors on each side with generous 1100mm openings, or through twin-swing rear doors which open to a full 270 degrees with ‘ball and socket’ magnetic stays to hold them there.

The floor has a relatively low 510mm loading height and is protected by a thick composite floor liner with a shiny metal-like appearance complete with non-slip ‘chequer plate’ finish. There’s also a full-length roof lining, bright LED internal lighting, fully lined walls and doors and a handy V2L 240V three-pin plug socket.

Cabin storage includes a large bottle holder and bin in each door, open shelving across the full width of the dash, a single glove box and the previously mentioned fold-down centre armrest containing two cupholders.

There’s also twin USB ports and a 12V socket in the lower dash fascia and enough space beneath the passenger seat to store the portable AC charger cable.

The V7E is available in two specifications defined by the size of their propulsion batteries (and therefore their driving ranges/charging times/kerb weights/payload ratings) with the entry-level Standard Range equipped with a 50kWh lithium-ion battery for $49,990, drive-away.

Our example is the premium Extended Range, which with a larger 66kWh battery is priced at $53,990, drive-away. Its Phantom Blue metallic finish is one of two premium paint options which (at the time of testing) are available at no extra cost.

Our test vehicle’s sub-$54K drive-away price is competitive with Chinese full-electric mid-size vans like the LDV e-Deliver 5 SWB ($52,621 driveaway) and lower than legacy brand offerings like Ford’s E-Transit Custom Trend ($77,890, plus on-road costs) or Kia’s PV5 Cargo ($55,990 + ORCs). Its standard equipment menu includes:

• 16-inch steel wheels with 195/65 R16C tyres, ‘aero’ wheel covers and a full-size spare
• Solid metal bulkhead between cabin and cargo bay
• LED headlights/daytime running lights/fog lights/tail-lights
• 240V V2L (Vehicle-to-Load) three-pin socket
• 12V accessory socket
• Multiple USB ports
• Heated/ventilated driver’s seat
• Heated multifunction steering wheel
• Smart key entry/keyless start
• 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity
• 7.0-inch driver’s instrument display
• 360-degree surround view monitor
• Adaptive cruise control
• Front/rear parking sensors

The Giulietta Veloce has a 1.75-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine which produce 177kW of power and 340Nm of torque. It's a great engine that lets loose a wonderful scream when pushed hard and the little grunts it makes when it changes gear when driving around normally sound like a giant enjoying his food.

The transmission is a dual-clutch auto which Alfa calls a TCT or twin-clutch transmission. I'm not a fan of them regardless of the brand of car they're in but the Alfa version is better than most of the others in its smoothness at lower speeds and decisiveness.

There's so much potential here for a great driving experience.

What about the Giulietta's reliability over time? This version of the car is less than two months old so we can only comment on what it offers as a brand-new vehicle, but you'll find good context in our used review of the earlier 2011-2014 Giulietta.

The V7E is powered by a single electric motor with up to 110kW of power and up to 230Nm of torque, with a choice of Normal or Eco drive modes and light or heavy regenerative braking.

This motor, which drives the front wheels through a single-speed automatic transmission, has an electronically limited top speed of 120km/h.

The V7E rides on double-wishbone front and rigid beam/leaf spring rear suspension with four-wheel disc brakes and electric power-assisted steering.

Alfa Romeo says you should see your Veloce drink at a rate of 6.8L/100km during combined driving, but the dash showed more than double that during mainly urban driving while  channelling  Enzo Ferrari.

Our Extended Range test vehicle has an official (WLTP) driving range of up to 329km from its 66kWh LFP (Lithium Ferro Phosphate) battery. Farizon claims AC charging from 15-100 per cent takes around five hours while DC fast charging from 20-80 per cent trims that to 33 minutes.

It was displaying 100 per cent charge and 332km of estimated driving range when we collected the vehicle, after which we drove 187km in typical metro traffic with average energy consumption of 20.2kWh/100km, leaving 47 per cent charge and 195km estimated range.

We used DC fast charging to go from 47-100 per cent charge in 42 minutes resulting in an optimistic 422km range estimate.

On this second charge we drove another 163km, of which more than 100km was hauling its near-maximum payload, resulting in higher consumption of 22.4kWh/100km. We completed our test with 40 per cent charge and 165km range remaining.

So, based on our consumption figures, you could expect a real-world driving range of more than 300km which aligns with its official WLTP-based figure, but is short of full-electric rivals like Kia’s smaller PV5 Cargo with more than 400km achievable in similar conditions.

There's so much potential here for a great driving experience such as the accurate and direct steering and great suspension which provides a comfortable ride and great handling, only for all to be let down by turbo lag which kills the responsiveness in the car.

Of the three steering modes: Dynamic, Natural and All Weather, the Dynamic setting was kept on almost always with the other two just feeling too lethargic.

The Giulietta is front-wheel drive and there's a lot of torque being sent to those wheels, but unlike a stack of Alfas in the past there's next to no torque steer. That said, our hill start test on a wet night saw those front wheels scrambling for traction as it accelerated up the slope. Cornering grip from the tyres is excellent, however.

There's some Alfa Romeo ergonomic issues in the cabin we've gotten used to over the years, but just because you're accustomed to something doesn't mean it's okay. For example, the cramped driver's footwell with the brake and accelerator pedals so close that it's easy to hit both at the same time.

Such is the intensity of the spray from both the window washer and the headlight washers it's like you're captaining a fishing trawler that's hit a massive wave at sea.

The indicator and wiper stalks are also so far from the steering wheel rim that they're almost out of reach – I don't think I have small hands, nobody's ever pointed them out or laughed at them.

And speaking of wipers, the Giulietta is obsessed with keeping itself clean. Pull the wiper stalk towards you to clean the windows and such is the intensity of the spray from both the window washer and the headlight washers it's like you're captaining a fishing trawler that's hit a massive wave at sea. Put the car into reverse and the rear wiper starts squirting and washing.

For Christmas I want Alfa to upgrade their media unit or bin it – the UConnect system disconnected my phone without prompting and isn't intuitive to use.

The driving position is more bus-like than car-like in terms of its steering wheel positioning and the seat has no adjustable lumbar support. There’s also no left footrest to brace against, so it can feel like you’re sliding towards the front of the seat at times which would benefit from some rake adjustment in the base cushion.

We also noticed the steering column shaft (complete with universal joint) passes through the driver’s floor to the left of the brake pedal, which restricts where you can rest your left foot. The driver’s door mirror also doesn’t pivot outwards far enough, so about one third of the mirror’s view is filled with the side of the van.

It’s quiet at speeds up to 80km/h thanks to the near silence of its drivetrain but noise from the Chinese-made Wanli tyres increases and becomes intrusive at highway speeds, where wind buffeting around its large door mirrors was also detected.

Thanks to its relatively light kerb weight, the V7E offers energetic acceleration around town when unladen with acceptable ride quality on smooth bitumen. However, it starts to lose its composure on bumpy roads with excessive bouncing of the suspension, which could benefit from refinement of spring and damper settings.

To test its GVM rating we forklifted 975kg into the cargo bay, which with driver resulted in a total one-tonne-plus payload of 1065kg that was about 140kg less than its legal limit.

The stout rear leaf springs only compressed about 25mm but such a big increase in sprung weight failed to iron out the suspension’s excessive bouncing, resulting in harsh and at times unwieldy ride and handling on uneven road surfaces.

Some of the active safety systems were also overly intrusive, particularly the lane keeping function with its unnerving fluctuations in turning weight and forceful steering inputs.

Combined with relentless warning chimes, often with no obvious visual confirmation of what they were warning about, we decided that the most annoying of these offenders were best left switched off.

The Farizon V7E, which is yet to be assessed by ANCAP’s Commercial Van Safety Comparison, comes standard with passive and active safety features including:

• Twin airbags
• Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
• Lane keeping
• Front/rear collision warning
• Front/rear parking sensors
• Rear cross-traffic assist
• Blind spot monitoring
• Adaptive cruise control
• Tyre pressure monitoring
• 360-degree monitor and more

The Giulietta is covered by Alfa Romeo's three year/150,000km warranty. Servicing is recommended at 12month/15,000km intervals with a major service every two years. Alfa Romeo doesn't have capped price servicing but there is Mopar Vehicle Protection which customers can purchase with the vehicle for $1995.

The Farizon V7E comes standard with a five year/200,000km vehicle warranty and the lithium-ion propulsion battery is covered by a separate eight year/200,000km warranty.

There’s also five years of complimentary roadside assist.

Scheduled servicing is every 12 months/30,000km whichever occurs first. Capped pricing for the first five years/150,000km totals $2385 or an average of $477 annually.

Farizon has a national network of seven dealerships (sales/service) represented in all states except Tasmania and is expanding its national vehicle servicing network through an approved third-party provider.