Alfa Romeo is changing the name of its first electric car from ‘Milano’ to ‘Junior’, following legal threats from the Italian government over the company’s decision to make the car in Poland.
Alfa Romeo parent company Stellantis announced last week that the EV would be called Alfa Romeo Milano, after the city where the Italian car manufacturer was founded in 1910.
But the country’s government subsequently warned that this could be against the law, with Industry Minister Adolfo Urso adamant that “a car called Milano must be produced in Italy.”
Although Alfa Romeo believes that the name met all legal requirements and that there are things that are much more important than the name of a new car, Alfa Romeo has decided to change it from ‘Milano’ to ‘Alfa Romeo Junior’ in the spirit of promotion. mutual understanding,” Stellantis said in a statement on Monday.
As Italian as pasta, pizza and Paolo Maldini, Alfa Romeo is one of the car-crazy country’s most recognizable brands. The Junior will be the first Alfa Romeo to be produced entirely outside Italy.
Stellantis, a French-Italian conglomerate that owns dozens of well-known car brands including Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Opel, produces Junior at its plant in Tychy, Poland, where production costs are lower than in Italy, meaning it could potentially offer a cheaper electric car for consumers and better compete with the increasingly dominant, cheap Chinese electric cars.
