The Alfa Romeo Junior Hybrid Costs £27,895

The reveal of the Alfa Romeo Junior last year may have been peppered with the controversy around its original name of Milano, and the hasty renaming process that followed, but that doesn’t diminish how important this little car is for the manufacturer.

Little crossovers are big business, after all, and so it was important that Alfa had one in its range to sit below the bigger Tonale and Stelvio and go after the sales once propped up by the MiTo and Giulietta hatches.

The Junior was first announced for the UK as an EV only, with a hybrid version initially only confirmed for left-hand drive markets. Likely fuelled by recent unsteady demand for electric cars, though, Alfa decided a few months ago to bring the hybrid – officially called the Ibrida, because Italian just sounds better – over here too.

It’s now confirmed that it’ll be on sale later in February, with deliveries in the second quarter of the year, at a starting price of £27,895, making it the most affordable car Alfa currently sells.

Based on parent company Stellantis’ Common Modular Platform, it shares plenty with the majority of small cars produced by the company’s sprawling portfolio of brands, and in particular has a lot in common with the Fiat 600 and Jeep Avenger.

Those two cars were also initially only to come to the UK as EVs, before that same faltering demand led to a change of course. The Junior Ibrida’s powertrain is the same as the hybrid versions of those close cousins – a 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder is paired up with a 28bhp electric motor driven by a small 48v battery. The result is 134bhp, sent to the front wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch auto.

That makes it the least powerful version – the most junior Junior, perhaps. The lower-powered of the two electric models, the Elettrica, gets 154bhp and the spicy Veloce EV packs 276bhp. The hybrid, though, will do 0-62mph in 8.9 seconds, and top out at 128mph – that’s a tenth quicker to 62 than the Elettrica, and a higher top speed than even the Veloce.

That entry price also makes it the cheapest Junior by a full £6,000, with the Elettrica starting at £33,895 and the Veloce – which, as these things go, is rather good fun – costing from £42,295.