ITALIAN LESSONS (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Alfa Romeo's compact Junior Elettrica small EV hatch gets a shot of power and purpose in this top 280 Veloce shopping rocket model. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 37

The Junior Elettrica Veloce 280 is Alfa Romeo's entry in the growing segment for compact hot hatch EVs. It's a top variant that aims to bring some much-needed Alfa credibility to the Milanese maker's volume-selling small hatch.

Backgroundword count: 170

Right at present, Alfa Romeo is a brand pretty much built around one model; the Junior. The marque does still sell other cars of course - the Giulietta, the Stelvio and, for wealthy billionaire collectors, the 33 Stradale supercar. But without the Junior compact Hybrid and EV hatch, it would effectively cease to exist. Which is an issue for brand enthusiasts given that the modestly-powered Junior is very much designed for Surbiton rather than Silverstone. Given that Alfa has an enthusiast brand image to maintain, the 33 Stradale engineering team were dispatched to create Junior variant more in keeping with this Milanese maker's driver-orientated traditions and this is it, the Junior Elettrica 280 Veloce. It's an EV, but with virtually double the power of the standard Elettrica model, via a drivetrain also used elsewhere across Stellantis Group brands in cars like the Abarth 600e, the Peugeot E-208 GTi and the Vauxhall Mokka GSe. So has it been tuned in this case to make this car feel properly Alfa? Let's see.

Driving Experienceword count: 306

The 276bhp electric motor of this Veloce model is very different from the 154bhp unit used by other full-electric Juniors. There is only one front-mounted motor for the Veloce - a point worth making because for the kind of money being asked here, you might reasonably expect the kind of much more powerful twin motor AWD set-up offered by a number of notable rivals (think Skoda Elroq vRS or smart #1 BRABUS or, more cheaply, the MG4 XPOWER). But perhaps you don't really need to reach 62mph in your EV hot hatch any faster than the Veloce's 5.9s time. That's if you're in the most urgent of the drive modes - Dynamic, which releases the maximum 345Nm of torque. Top speed is 124mph, 31mph faster than an ordinary Junior Elettrica. Those who know their driving will also know that it's not how fast you can go in this kind of car but how much you're likely to enjoy yourself doing it. Well, this Alfa has been engineered to score here. For a start, it's one of the lightest cars in the segment, the 1,560kg kerb weight being, for instance, 240kg lighter than a rival CUPRA Born VZ. And the cornering traction you might think might be missing due to the lack of a dual motor set-up is amply supplied (in dry conditions at least) by wider 225-section Michelin Pilot Sport EV tyres and the kind of limited-slip differential that a lot of rivals do without. There's also a 25mm-lowered ride height, a thicker anti-roll bar, beefier brakes (380mm discs with four-pot calipers) and a retuned steering set-up with a quick 2.6-turns lock-to-lock. Range from the 54kWh battery is a bit disappointing though, rated just 207 miles, a figure you could easily half if you start really enjoying herself. As you very well might in this car.

To see the full road test text contact us on 0330 0020 227