2025 Alfa Romeo Milano renamed Junior after backlash

The 2025 Alfa Romeo Milano has officially been renamed the Alfa Romeo Junior after a backlash from the Italian government, which declared the use of ‘Milano’ illegal because the all-new small SUV will be produced in Poland.

Since 2003, Italian law has mandated that products with Italian-related names must only be produced in Italy, irrespective of the brand or company’s origins.

The controversy moved into a higher gear last week, when the Italian government’s minister for business and ‘Made in Italy’, Adolfo Urso, decreed “a car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland” – even if it was an Alfa Romeo, one of the most famous and iconic Italian marques.

“This law stipulates that you cannot give indications that mislead consumers,” he said.

“So a car called Milano must be produced in Italy.

“Otherwise, it gives a misleading indication, which is not allowed under Italian law.”

Alfa Romeo is unhappy with the situation but has complied with government orders to change the nameplate, renaming Milano the Alfa Romeo Junior “in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding”.

The Junior moniker is said to have been a fan favourite during polling of what the Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600e sibling should be called, with strong ties to Alfa Romeo’s heritage dating back to 1966.

“The choice of the name Alfa Romeo Junior is completely natural, as it is strongly linked to the history of the brand and has been among our favourites and among the public’s favourites since the beginning,” said Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato.

“As a team, we are choosing once again to share our passion for the brand and make the product and our customers the priority.

“We decided to change the name, even though we know that we are not required to do so, because we want to preserve the positive emotion that our products have always generated and avoid any type of controversy.”

Imparato also said the saga had drawn a huge amount of attention to the new model over the past few days as global media outlets swooped on the story and elevated it to an international spectacle.

Indeed, there’s been so much attention on the Junior, Alfa Romeo’s configurator couldn’t handle the directed traffic and crashed the brand’s entire website for “a couple hours”.

Australian plans for the compact Alfa are yet to be confirmed by Stellantis’ local operation, however the Jeep Avenger sibling has been confirmed for our market and will arrive the fourth quarter of this year.

As the most affordable Alfa Romeo model, Junior serves as a spiritual successor for the MiTo light hatch and Giulietta small car.

An Australian launch is anticipated during 2025.

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