Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida 2025 Review

You’ll have to crack open the wallet and shell out $45,900 (plus on-road costs) to get into a 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida. 

Six exterior colours are available (White Sempione, Black Tortona, Red Brera, Blue Navigli, Arese Steel and Galleria Light Grey), all with a black roof.  White is free, but any other colour is $1990 extra. The only other factory option is a panoramic sunroof, which is $1990 extra.

In Red Brera and fitted with the optional fast glass roof, the Junior Ibrida we’re testing is $49,880 (plus ORCs).

The Junior is classed by VFACTS as a light SUV, where it takes seniority as far as price goes. With the most popular volume sellers being the Mazda CX-3, the Toyota Yaris Cross and the Hyundai Venue from $23,000 (all plus ORCs), the $45K Junior seems a big ask.

Even the premium versions of models above don’t crack $40k, while the most expensive non-EV in the segment is the Volkswagen T-Cross R-Line.

Alternatively, you could consider that the Junior lines up closely (in mild hybrid powertrain, dimensions, price and premium positioning, at least) against the likes of the Lexus LBX hybrid. Clearly this SUV does not have a straight-forward competitor set.

The standard inclusions list is, for the most part, comprehensive for the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida.

There are features like 18-inch ‘Petali’ diamond cut alloy wheels, privacy glass on rear side and rear windows, gloss black body kit and side mirrors, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, keyless entry and start

Inside there is a six-way powered driver’s seat with lumbar adjustment and seat massage functions, leather steering wheel, paddle shifters, heated front seats, eight-colour interior ambient lighting, alloy pedals and door sills, carpet mats front and rear and a hands-free power tailgate.

Disappointingly at this price point, the climate control is single zone, the passenger seat is adjusted manually and there is no spare wheel – instead you get an inflation/repair kit.

A five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty is offered with the Junior Ibrida, as is five years of free roadside assistance. Servicing is due every 12 months or 15,000km, with Alfa Romeo offering capped-price servicing for up to 10 years/150,000km. The first five years/75,000km of scheduled servicing will set you back a total of $3106.

The 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida is kitted out with six airbags (front, front side and side curtain) but there’s no ANCAP or Euro NCAP crash testing recorded to date.

The Alfa’s close Stellantis cousin, the Jeep Avenger, achieved a four-star Euro NCAP rating, so that may be some indication of what the Junior could gain in the future.

Active safety gear includes the usual suspects including Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) with vulnerable road user detection, lane departure and lane keeping assist, traffic sign recognition and intelligent speed control

Elsewhere the Junior gains LED matrix headlights with light-sensing and high beam assist features, LED taillights, front, rear and side parking sensors, rear camera with dynamic lines, tyre pressure monitoring and rain sensing wipers.

The Junior’s active cruise control includes stop-and-go functionality, too. However, it’s missing rear cross traffic alert and rear auto braking, while the bird’s eye camera is only a rear 180-degree view, not a 360-degree aspect.

For your entertainment and information requirements, the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida offers up a decent amount of tech.

Housing the infotainment is a 10.25-inch centre touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, built-in navigation and DAB+ digital radio, which is wired up to a six-speaker audio system. There’s also wireless phone charging, and Alfa Connect telematics that comes standard for the first 12 months.

It’s all quite a familiar set up, meaning it seems to have similar menus to the Peugeot range, albeit with unique Alfa Romeo graphics.

The powertrain in the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida is a mild hybrid set-up.

At its core is a 100kW/230Nm 1.2-litre, turbocharged three-cylinder petrol Miller-cycle engine that drives the front wheels via a six-speed dual-clutch automatic. Within this transmission is the hybrid’s electrical system, comprising a 48-volt lithium-ion battery and a 21kW electric motor.

The net result is 107kW of combined peak power, while torque remains at 230Nm. Alfa Romeo claims that the Junior will accelerate from rest to 100 km/h in 8.9 seconds, with a maximum velocity of 206km/h.

Alfa Romeo claims that the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida consumes fuel at a rate of 4.1L/100km (NEDC). It has a 44-litre fuel tank and runs on a diet of premium 95RON fuel.

With a mix of freeway and urban shuffling, we achieved an average of 6.6L/100km on test.

Before you even get going in the Junior, there’s an annoying delay to the electrics. Unlocking takes a second after touching the keyless door handle and the engine needs a deliberate ‘press and hold’ of the start button to fire up. Even the tailgate has a second delay after pressing the release.

However, all is forgiven once rolling as one of the great things about the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior’s powertrain is its characterful sound and eager response around town. It suffers minimal lag off the mark and gets up to speed (on suburban roads, at least) with gusto and has plenty of mid-range torque.

The electric-only operation is very brief and while it transitions smoothly to petrol power, that is where it stays much of the time. A few very slow traffic crawls on flat ground resulted in keeping the petrol engine off, but not for long.

While it isn’t quick, the Junior is an engaging SUV to drive. The steering is quite direct with the Junior following your chosen line obediently, even if the assistance makes it a touch too light. The ride isn’t as supple over sharp bumps as it could be though. Low-speed ride over ripples and undulations can get a bit too unsettled too, even for a light SUV like this.

The active safety systems in the Junior are not hyper-active like some. Even the speed-sign recognition system (despite often getting the speed wrong) is a little less annoying than in some other vehicles as the chime notification is more discreet than distracting. You get the message without being beaten into submission with it.

The cabin of the 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida is a comfortable place to sit... when up front at least.

The controls and instruments are all pretty simple to operate, although vision out the back with the kicked-up rear side windows and small hatch glass is not the best. At least the rear-view camera resolution and side mirror size work with you to see what’s going on back there.

The rear seat appears to be comfortable for adults less than about 180cm tall on a long trip in terms of head and leg room, although the seat base is a bit flat and on the short side. There’s one USB-C port back there, but it’s a bit light-on for storage with just a couple of map pockets on the back of the front seats – but no centre armrest or air vents.

While the dash binnacle shroud is a nice nod to Alfa designs past and the seat materials have a stylish pattern, the hard plastic finishes here and there don’t really mark this Alfa as a step up compared to other, cheaper light SUVs.

There are 415 litres of boot space, which is pretty good for a SUV of this size, and the two-tier boot floor gives some flexibility for storing stuff. The lack of a standard spare wheel doesn’t give you much flexibility if you happen to gash a tyre sidewall. However, at least Alfa offers a space-saver spare option for $314 and a jack tool kit for $170.

The 2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida is an interesting alternative in a pretty uniform field of light and small SUVs. It offers a stylish point of difference with its design motifs linking to models from Alfa Romeo’s long history.

Yet, it doesn’t return remarkable fuel consumption, and it lacks some features for the relatively large financial ask. And ultimately, you have to really want to own something a bit different to buy this SUV, one that’s distinctly Peugeot underneath.

Still, with responsive dynamics as well as an eager and characterful engine, the Junior is a good SUV – just not a groundbreaking one.

2025 Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida at a glance:
Price: $45,900 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol-electric
Output: 100kW/230Nm electric motor: 21kW
Combined output: 107kW/230Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 4.1L/100km WLTP
CO2: 92g/km WLTP
Safety rating: Not tested

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