Tiny Italian hot SUV ruled out for now

The tiny Alfa Romeo Junior arrived in Australia a few months ago but the company has confirmed it’s not going to give it a fire-breathing performance flagship for now.

While there’s the hot-looking Elettrica Veloce trim available in other markets, the Italian carmaker said a Quadrifoglio (also referred to as QV) version has been considered for the Junior.

However, speaking with Australian media, including CarsGuide, Alfa Romeo Head of Product Mario Lamagna said the QV badge will remain for the larger models, including the Giulia and Stelvio, for the time being.

“QV is a really serious thing in Alfa,” said Lamagna.

“We study… if an Alfa can be a QV. We take it very seriously.

“There are many different… characteristics that an Alfa needs to respect to be called a QV.

“We thought about that [a Junior QV], but for the moment, with the technologies that we have, we didn’t believe there was a powertrain that was the right one to be called the Quadrifoglio for the Junior.

“And also in this segment you have to be very careful with what you do, because, again, Quadrifoglio is [a] very strong high-performance label.

“The decision we took was to protect it and to keep it for… the higher segments.

“I will never say no to QV in any model, but it is something that has to be studied because QV means serious stuff,” he said.

The two current Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio models, the Giulia and Stelvio QV, are both powered by a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine with 375kW and 600Nm.

All QV models have been powered by pure internal-combustion engines to date, but Lamagna explained as emission regulations crunch it’s getting harder to develop and launch these kinds of models.

As a result, the company is open to exploring hybrid and electric QV models.

“We of course love thermal engines and we are in love with our V6s,” said Lamagna.

“So we are, for sure, looking always at thermal engines. But with the future technologies, you can do a lot of interesting stuff, also with electric powertrains.

“The point is that it really depends on the actual performance of the car. If you are able to do something that drives well and kicks in, very nice. I am open to both [hybrid and electric].

“It’s very hard then to [know] what you can do at the end because thermal engines [will soon have] have a lot of concerns with CO2 emissions.

“We have a lot of regulation in Europe and for also on your side.

“So it’s not easy to develop and to launch high-performance engines in the second part of this decade,” he added.

The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica is the Italian carmaker’s first electric vehicle (EV). It’s currently priced from $57,900, before on-road costs, in Australia, which is $12,000 more than the Ibrida mild-hybrid version.

As noted above, the hot-looking Junior Elettrica Veloce is available overseas. For now it’s unclear whether it will come to Australia.

It’s technically the most powerful variant in the line-up, packing a single, front-mounted electric motor producing 207kW/345Nm.

For context, the regular Junior Elettrica produces 115kW/260Nm and the Junior Ibrida delivers 100kW/230Nm.