After uproar, Alfa Romeo renames Milano SUV the Junior

TURIN – Alfa Romeo is renaming first full-electric model the Junior following a growing debate with the Italian government on using the name of an Italian city, Milano (Milan in English), for a car that will be built in Poland.

Alfa Romeo decided to change the name on Monday after a confrontation with officials from the Industry and Made in Italy Ministry on Friday, two days after the small SUV was unveiled in Milan.

Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said the brand renamed the Milano to avoid further conflict. “When you move into political discussions, you immediately lose half of your buyers and we wanted to prevent this,” Imparato said during a news conference.

Imparato said the financial impact of the name change will be negligible because Milano production has not yet started and very few marketing projects will have to be changed.

Imparato said Alfa had given the Italian authorities a detailed explanation on why it considered the use of the Milano name as fair.

He said the arguments presented to the authorities included a number of points:

• The Milano name was chosen as an homage to the city where Alfa was born in 1910.
• Milano finished first in a web poll with Alfa enthusiasts ("Junior" was second) conducted last summer
• Alfa never said or suggested that the car was built in Milan or in Italy
• The Milano/Junior was designed and engineered in Italy
• “Made in Poland” is clearly stated in a vehicle identification number on a pillar
• There are a number of cars that bear names of cities not connected to their production sites (for example, the Kia Sorento and Rio, Nissan Murano, Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson; Toyota Tacoma and Chevrolet Malibu)
• Alfa said 18 months ago that its coming small car would be built in Poland 
• The name Milano was announced on Dec. 13 (in Milan) and there had been no reaction from the government until the day after the Milano unveiling (April 10)

Imperato said that Alfa Romeo decided to change the name even though it was convinced that it could win a case if taken in court. He said the brand is already working “belly down” to refocus its marketing and communication strategy on the Junior name.

Junior has history

The Junior name has appeared on a number of Alfa Romeo models, including versions of the 105 series coupe and a limited-production, Zagato-designed sports coupe in the 1970s. It had also been proposed as a possible name for the small SUV before Milano was chosen.

Following the success of the Giulia and its Giulia Sprint GT coupe version, designed by Giugiaro for Bertone, Alfa sought to attract younger customers eager for an affordable sports car, and it created the GT 1300 Junior, with a smaller engine.

Unveiled on Alfa Romeo’s test track in Balocco in September 1966, the GT 1300 Junior would become a success. Total sales were about 92,000 units, a significant number for Alfa Romeo in the late 1960s.

The main mechanical variant of the Junior was a 1290 cc twin-cam engine, which delivered 89 hp for a top speed of over 170 km/h, only slightly less than the regular Giulia GT with a 1.6-liter engine.

Alfa had also used the name Junior for the internal code of the small car that would be launched as MiTo, combining the license plate identification of Milano, where it had been designed, and Turin (Torino in Italian) where it was produced.

Political nightmare

The Milano name had threatened to become a political nightmare for Stellantis. Almost immediately after the car’s reveal last week, Italy's industry minister, Adolfo Urso, criticized the automaker for producing Alfa Romeo's first full-electric vehicle abroad, saying the automaker's decision violated Italian law and mislead consumers.

The law mentioned by Urso says it is illegal to present a foreign-made product as coming from Italy. Typically, it has been invoked against food products, for example U.S.-made "parmesan" cheese resembling Italy's "parmigiano."

"A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by Italian law," Urso said in Turin, referring to 2003 legislation that targets "Italian sounding" products that falsely claim to be Italian.

Urso's complaint about the Milano is the latest in a war of words between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's nationalist government and Stellantis, as the two sides hold talks on a plan to boost domestic auto production to one million units.

Meloni has accused Stellantis, the country's sole major automaker, of taking France's interests into consideration over Italian ones, and described the group's birth as an "alleged" merger which "actually disguised a French takeover."

Polish production

The Milano – now the Junior -- is being built at Stellantis's plant in Tychy, Poland, alongside the Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600 sibling models, with the first deliveries set for September. It will be the first Alfa Romeo to be entirely produced outside Italy.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said last week that the Milano needed to be built outside Italy to be competitive.

"If built in Italy, a Milano would have started from about €40,000 instead of €30,000, limiting its potential on the marketplace,” Tavares said last week during a roundtable discussion in Milan at the launch of the new model.