Photo: car.design.trends / Instagram
The latest 'scandal' across the automotive industry comes from an unexpected place – Alfa Romeo and its desire to name their first-ever all-electric automobile after the city where the Italian brand was founded in 1910, Milan.
Alfa Romeo is currently headquartered in Turin, so there may be some animosity between the Lombardy and Piedmont regions, but we didn't expect that a controversy surrounding an official name could spread like wildfire and lead to an immediate retcon. Alas, here it is: the story of Alfa Romeo Milano is now the tale of the Alfa Romeo Junior, actually.
So, the all-new subcompact crossover SUV model designed and engineered to succeed both the little MiTo three-door hatchback and the larger Giulietta compact was incessantly teased, spied, and rendered over the preceding months leading up to the official unveiling on April 10, 2024. Immediately, the model was met with controversy – not just because of its different styling compared to Tonale, Giulia, and Stelvio, but also due to its treatment of the classic Alfa radiator grille.
Anyway, soon enough, the design rants were overshadowed by public discussions between Alfa officials and the Italian government, which suddenly announced that Alfa Romeo either shouldn't build the Milano in Poland or rename it because it's misleading to carry an Italian name and the model to be produced hundreds of miles away from the country.
Well, the bosses said that it would cost around $11k more to manufacture it at home, so they begrudgingly thanked the Italian government for the 'free' (negative) publicity and five days after the model's unveiling, on April 15, swept the Milano name under the rug and placed the 'Junior' tag front and center on the subcompact CUV arriving first as an all-electric model and later with gas-powered mild hybrid powertrains.
As it turns out, everyone knows about this controversy now – probably even the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. We don't know for sure if the Milano/Junior launch and this design project are connected in any way, but the timing was spot-on for this idea, and the good folks over at car.design.trends have recently focused our attention on a hypothetical proposal for a hatchback comeback done by Luis Carlos Moreno.
Going by the moniker luiscardesign on social media, this automotive designer works for EDAG Engineering in Barcelona, Spain, but also loves to dabble with independent, personal projects. As such, meet the revived Alfa Romeo Giulietta, which comes back to life in fantasy land, caring much less about the Milano/Junior debacle from the design standpoint and much more about establishing a styling connection with the Tonale, Giulia, and Stelvio. So, what do you think? Does this compact hatchback or the Milano/Junior crossover deserve our CGI thumbs up?
So, the all-new subcompact crossover SUV model designed and engineered to succeed both the little MiTo three-door hatchback and the larger Giulietta compact was incessantly teased, spied, and rendered over the preceding months leading up to the official unveiling on April 10, 2024. Immediately, the model was met with controversy – not just because of its different styling compared to Tonale, Giulia, and Stelvio, but also due to its treatment of the classic Alfa radiator grille.
Anyway, soon enough, the design rants were overshadowed by public discussions between Alfa officials and the Italian government, which suddenly announced that Alfa Romeo either shouldn't build the Milano in Poland or rename it because it's misleading to carry an Italian name and the model to be produced hundreds of miles away from the country.
Well, the bosses said that it would cost around $11k more to manufacture it at home, so they begrudgingly thanked the Italian government for the 'free' (negative) publicity and five days after the model's unveiling, on April 15, swept the Milano name under the rug and placed the 'Junior' tag front and center on the subcompact CUV arriving first as an all-electric model and later with gas-powered mild hybrid powertrains.
As it turns out, everyone knows about this controversy now – probably even the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. We don't know for sure if the Milano/Junior launch and this design project are connected in any way, but the timing was spot-on for this idea, and the good folks over at car.design.trends have recently focused our attention on a hypothetical proposal for a hatchback comeback done by Luis Carlos Moreno.
Going by the moniker luiscardesign on social media, this automotive designer works for EDAG Engineering in Barcelona, Spain, but also loves to dabble with independent, personal projects. As such, meet the revived Alfa Romeo Giulietta, which comes back to life in fantasy land, caring much less about the Milano/Junior debacle from the design standpoint and much more about establishing a styling connection with the Tonale, Giulia, and Stelvio. So, what do you think? Does this compact hatchback or the Milano/Junior crossover deserve our CGI thumbs up?
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