REPORT 4
Not so long ago, Alfa Romeos were somewhat renowned for their idiosyncracies. Little oddities either about their styling or interiors, if there was a car that could ever usually boast form over function, it was an Alfa.
While enthusiasts may miss those days with misty eyes, the reality is that today’s Alfas under Stellantis ownership are far better made and more reliable than they probably have been. That doesn’t mean that they’ve entirely lost those little idiosyncracies mind you – as I’ve been finding out with the Junior with three negatives and three surprising positives.
One thing I’ve kept meaning to mention and keep forgetting is the lack of grab handles. I can understand the lack of one for the driver, but there is only one for the front passenger and none for those in the back. Not a huge problem, but it also means that you can’t hang a jacket up. Now, I appreciate that I’m not a photocopier salesman from 1986 but I wouldn’t mind at least a coat hook in there. Without it, I’m left lying a jacket across the back seat where it quickly slides across and crumples.
Second is the boot opener. I’ve been driving the Junior for more than two months and I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve only just found the internal button for the electric boot. It’s on the ceiling, above the rearview mirror and right next to the emergency SOS button. Now I’m no car designer, but would you place a button you’ll probably use regularly, right next to one that hopefully you might never have to use? How does that make possible sense?
And the last negative is the ventilation system, which has two parts to it. First is the fact that you can’t have air blowing in your face and the windscreen at the same time, which seems like a hangover from cars of yesteryear. The second is that the Junior will frequently automatically turn on the air conditioning when I start up, when I don’t want it wasting valuable range. What’s infuriating is that it doesn’t do it every time, only on occasion, so I often don’t realise for a while.
So those are the negatives, what about the positives? Well I make no apology for repeating myself from past reports, but I never cease to be amazed by the Junior’s efficiency. Generally, most modern EVs are hard pressed to match their claimed efficiency ratings, but the Alfa is matching its official 4.1mls/kWh and regularly beating it. I realise we’re now in summer, but on shorter journeys I now regularly see more than 5mls/kWh – and bar very long motorway trips, it makes little difference what I do to change that.
And talking of motorway trips, I unwittingly discovered something else about the Junior. Over three days recently, I had to drive around the concrete South-East section of the M25 no less than five times (I know, I know, don’t ask).
For anyone not familiar with that section, in almost any car, it’s usually on a par for road noise with having Keith Moon in the back seat with his full drum kit. Not in the Junior however. At first, I honestly hadn’t noticed that the Alfa was noticeably quieter than other cars. Then, I wondered whether they done something different with the road – they hadn’t. But I can honestly say that the Alfa is one of the quietest cars I’ve driven across that section of motorway – and I’ve driven plenty, believe me.
And lastly is Apple Carplay. Now I don’t want to jinx things, but I can’t remember ever having driven a car where Carplay is as reliable as this – including other Stellantis products, funnily enough.
Next stop is a big road trip for the summer holidays to Devon, so I’ll see how the Junior copes with long motorway trips and relying solely on public chargers. Wish me luck…
REPORT 3
As mentioned in my last report, this month saw my first proper road trip with the Alfa Junior. A few days in the Peak District meant a chance to get my hiking legs back into working order, but that also meant the possibility of an aching wallet as well as aching muscles.
The reason was simply down to the need to charge the Junior while up there. In reality, I was planning to spend much more time on two feet than four wheels, but I would certainly need a charge on arrival to get me around while up there and a full charge for my return journey.
However, trying to find an AirBnB location with EV charging on site is rather challenging, but, despite the very small selection and a lot of searching, I finally managed it. And therein lies the problem for EV drivers. It’s so much easier to charge at your location that it’s almost worth compromising on what you might ideally want from a property.
My eventual location in a small village between Bakewell and Buxton offered off-street parking and home charging at 30p/kWh. For a full 0-100% charge of the Junior’s 54kWh battery that would be the equivalent of £16.20, but the alternative was at an ultra-rapid CCS charger at 75p/kWh that could cost more than £40, so I was making a considerable saving. Also, I was more than happy for the owner to make a profit from providing charging facilities if it means that I’m saving money too.
As it happened, I needn’t have worried. My host was very friendly and we got chatting about all things home charging and also on EVs as he was curious about the Junior. During the course of our conversation, he was on the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff, reducing that equivalent 100% charge to just £3.78. He further explained that, despite the wording on his AirBnB account, if his guests were happy to only charge overnight at that cheap rate then he didn’t bother actually charging anyone, which was obviously fine with me.
While the faster motorway driving and the need for air con during the recent high temperatures saw the Junior’s average drop, the more sedate speeds driving around the Peak District meant that was soon almost restored back to my normal average of 4mls/kWh by the end of the few days, which also helped to reduce the amount of charge for the return journey.
The answer when running an EV therefore is to be as smart as possible when it comes to your charging, because not all electricity and not all opportunities to charge are equal. Or, to be more precise, charging costs are certainly not equal, especially when out on the road.
REPORT 2
One month down with the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica and I’d like to expand on something that I touched on at the end of the previous report – right-sized EVs.
Coming from ICE vehicles, there’s a natural tendency with EVs to want the biggest battery and the longest range possible to cover all eventualities. That’s understandable with larger cars, but with smaller cars like the Junior, efficiency is far more important.
This Junior might only have a 54kW battery shared with other models in the Stellantis range, but that’s enough for a 248 mile real-world range and, perhaps more importantly, efficiency levels of regularly above 4mls/kWh especially on shorter journeys.
Now, admittedly we’re into the summer months and warmer temperatures and air conditioning doesn’t deplete an EV’s range as much as the heater in winter, but anything above 4mls/kWh is pretty good in my book. It would be easy to criticise the Junior and say this is only on shorter journeys, but in reality this is what the majority of us are doing for the majority of the time.
A really good example is a few days walking in the Peak District next month. That will see me cover at least 400 miles in five days, but that’s a rare trip. The rest of the time, I’m doing short hops on my commute to the station, for the school drop off or pick up, all usually less than 20 miles. And on those shorter, slower journeys, I can regularly not just hit that magic 4mls/kWh figure, but better it, anything up to 4.5mls/kWh.
Again, those critics might say that that’s a great efficiency figure, but it’s only achieveable on those shorter journeys. But the thing is, all of those shorter journeys add up to a long distance when they’re combined. The length of the journey is irrelevant, because it’s the overall that really matters. And, of course, in turn that also dilutes the lesser efficiency of those longer trips for your overall average.
It’s this that makes the Alfa such a great little EV. It may not boast a 300 mile-plus range, but it doesn’t need to. The times when I need it do that distance will be few and far between and then I can use the public charging network which is improving all the time (despite what you might read in some areas of the media). For the other 95% of the time however, I’ll be revelling in the Junior’s great efficiency and the perfect sized battery for the perfect sized car. Not too big, not too small, it’s the EV answer to Goldilocks.
REPORT 1
So here’s a tough circle to square for Alfa Romeo. Just how, with a brand known for its passion, emotion and focus on driver enjoyment, do you match that to the efficiency and more practical needs of a modern EV? I’ll be looking to find that out over my next six months with the new Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica.
This Junior is the mid-range Speciale model with a 54kWh battery and 156bhp, down on the flagship 240bhp of the Veloce but also maximising its 254 mile claimed range. As a family car and with summer holidays and some upcoming hiking trips, I’ll be stretching that range to its maximum at times – especially so after having enjoyed the range of the outgoing Renault Scenic with its 87kW battery.
That said, perhaps that won’t be the issue I first imagined judging from my first few days with the car. When I saw the claimed 4.1mls/kWh official average efficiency, I must admit that I inwardly scoffed as to whether that could be matched in the real world. However, even with some long motorway journeys, I’ve already been recording 4.0mls/kWh without any effort whatsoever. If first impressions count, then the Alfa is doing itself no harm at all.
The same goes for its looks too. I have yet to see another Junior on the roads, but the Brera Red of our test car combined with the black roof (a £1200 optional extra) is really striking – even my neighbour who isn’t remotely interested in cars, remarked on its looks and styling. The other option, the £1350 Technology pack, adds LED matrix headlights, an electric tailgate (nice to have, but probably a bit OTT on such a small car), wireless charging and front, rear and side parking sensors.
In fact, the only downside of the Junior’s styling is, ironically, one of my favourite elements. The dominant front grille with its Alfa serpent cut out is a lovely detail, but being all matt black perhaps doesn’t stand out in real life (or pictures) as much as you might imagine. For me that’s a shame as it matches the rest of the eye-catching exterior – but then if it were gloss black maybe it would stand out too much?
The Junior’s size is also winning me over. I loved my previous Scenic, but even though it wasn’t a huge SUV, it still sometimes felt big when slotting into some tighter car parking spaces. That’s not a problem with the Alfa though, its smaller dimensions meaning that it can easily slot into the most awkward of spaces. Along with that smaller battery and range but great efficiency, it’s also a great example of ‘right sized EVs’ for car manufacturers going forward. I’ve always been a firm believer in smaller and more efficient EVs having a crucial part to play in the e-mobility transition, so the next six months spent with the Junior will be a good test of that.