New Stellantis car won’t be called Milano: it is not built in Italy and has nothing to do with Alfa Romeo traditions

Stellantis is forced to change the name of the latest Alfa Romeo from “Milano” to “Junior.” The reason is simple: the car is not built in Italy but in Poland; it has nothing Italian about it, and an Italian law prohibits giving Italian names to products that have nothing Italian about them. Like the “MIlano,” but now like the whole “Alfa Romeo” brand.

“While we believe that the name Milan meets the legal requirements, we are changing the name to Alfa Romeo Junior. We have had unprecedented notoriety with this controversy; the new Alfa Romeo will be called Junior starting tonight at 6 p.m.” The CEO of Alfa Romeo, Jean-Philippe Imparato, made this statement earlier in a live press conference following the controversy with Mimit (the Ministry of Made in Italy) regarding the name of the new Alfa Romeo, which is manufactured in a Polish plant. “I don’t want to do politics or controversy; I want to do business,” he remarked.

In recent days, Stellantis top management has explained that producing the compact SUV in Italy would raise the price of the car, making it cost up to 10 thousand euros more than the planned list (30 to 40 thousand euros). Then the backtrack after the fuss over the name.

“Alfa was born in Milan, and I liked the name.”. It was born in Milan, but it’s dead now, so what’s the point of giving it an Italian name? It even sounds like an insult to Italy.

“Last week was great with lots of positive energy at Milano`s launch event at Aci. The name was a public favorite, and I liked it because Alfa Romeo was born in Milan in 1910, and I`m obsessed with connecting to the brand`s history to also fight Chinese competition,” Imparato continued. The group CEO, Carlos Tavares, with whom the top manager had spoken, added that this incident would not influence decisions about Alfa Romeo production in Italy.

“Over the weekend, Carlos Tavares gave me a call. This episode will not affect our production choices in Italy, but I hope the matter is resolved now. No one told me to change the name, but when you breathe a certain air, it’s better to do it,” Imparato said during streaming with the press to announce the name change for the compact SUV, which was decided in the afternoon. Alfa Romeo will produce the new Stelvio and Giulia in Italy in 2025 and 2026, respectively, in Cassino, while the Tonale is produced in Pomigliano. The new Junior SUV, on the other hand, will be produced in Tychy, Poland. The cost of rebranding from Milan to Junior, which will be global, “will be practically zero because we have produced few cars,” Imparato concluded.

This decision comes in the wake of statements by Enterprise and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso, who in recent days had said, “A car called Milan cannot be produced in Poland. This is prohibited by the Italian law that created Italian sounding in 2003, which states that one may not display any signs that could lead a customer to believe something they are not.” For Urso, it would in fact be “fallacious indications explicitly linked to geographical indications. So a car called Milan must be produced in Italy; otherwise, you give a fallacious indication that it is not allowed by Italian law.”

Alfa Romeo $ c

Incidentally, the line of the Milano/Junior had been quite criticized, and nothing about the car recalls Alfa’s historical lines, which made people’s heads turn one day. This is just another run-of-the-mill SUV that might as well be built in Shanghai. It is a common, modern, and ugly car

Alfa Romeo Montreal

The Italian government should compel Stellantis to revive the two brands Alfa Roomeoo and Lancia and then bring them back to Italian production and not have them used for mediocre cars built by the French group.