New Alfa Romeo Milano revives the marque’s sporty, small-car heyday

Arriving just in time for Salone del Mobile 2024, this is the appropriately named Alfa Romeo Milano, the revitalised Italian manufacturer’s new small car.

The Milano places great emphasis on sportiness, with one combustion option and two levels of electric power, including a 240hp equivalent Veloce model at the top-of-the-range. The Milano Elettrica, as it'll be known, is Alfa's first pure EV, pitched at a freshly exciting small EV segment and will go head-to-head with the likes of the Volvo EX30 and the forthcoming Cupra Tavascan.

Whilst the Volvo is all about simplicity, Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile in Turin has gone all out to make the Milano a car that’s both intriguing to drive and to look at. Alfa claims a relatively low weight for the class, as well as a spacious cabin and capacious boot, with a dashboard that celebrates the marque’s sporting small-car heyday, the 1960s. The twin instrument binnacles hark directly back to cars like the GT Junior, whilst the inevitable touch screen is part of the dash, rather than a tablet stuck on top of it.

What’ll be crucial is the Milano’s driving dynamics. Compact and lithe are relative terms in a marketplace of ballooning scales and weights, but with a length of 4.17m and width of 1.78m, it’s definitely at the smaller end of what’s available. The projected range of 250 miles is the least we’ve come to expect for any small electric car and Alfa is being surprisingly cagey about the stats and abilities of the ICE version; bets are still being hedged even at this late stage of EV acceptance.

Visually, the Milano is a far more coherent realisation of Alfa Romeo’s core values than its current clutch of SUVs, the Tonale and Stelvio. The silhouette is helped by the rising beltline, kicked-up tail and large 20in wheels, complete with signature ‘Petali’ designs, while the front-end treatment features a new manifestation of the Alfa ‘face’, complete with a stylised radiator-like grille for the EV and a more conventional front end for the ICE.

It’s not retro by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a strangely familiar aura to the Milano’s stance and overall appearance, almost as if an early noughties concept car had been brought to life. The kicked up rear end – a Kamm tail, in aerodynamic speak – is a direct reference to Alfa Romeo’s Giulia TZ, a 1960s sports car bodied by Zagato, one of many styling houses to give visual expression to the Alfas of this period. 

The Alfa/Zagato relationship is still very much a thing, albeit on a far smaller scale, but cars like the Milano and the upcoming limited edition 33 Stradale show that a storied past is still the key to Alfa’s future. 

Orders for the Alfa Romeo Milano will open in Summer 2024, price tbc, AlfaRomeo.co.uk, @AlfaRomeo.co.uk