Alfa Romeo Milano gets new name

Alfa Romeo has announced that its Milano crossover will now be called the Junior, less than a week after the car made its international debut.

The move comes following criticism from the Italian government, which declared that use of the Milano name is forbidden by Italian law as the use of an Italian-sounding name for a product not produced in Italy would mislead customers into thinking that it was made in Italy.

The Alfa Romeo Milano is set to be built at the firm's Tychy assembly plant in Poland, where models including the Fiat 500 are built. The plant is additionally set to be a manufacturing site for Jeep's new all-electric Avenger model.

Alfa Romeo states that it believes that its use of the 'Milano' name meets all legal requirements, however, it has chosen to conduct a rename of the model in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding. The Milano name was originally chosen to pay tribute to the city where Alfa Romeo's history begun in 1910, after the firm consulted the public for opinions when choosing the model's name.

The new 'Junior' name, however, is also described by the firm as being one of the public's favourites, and takes after the GT 1300 Junior, a coupe which was unveiled in 1966 and was designed by Giugiaro for Bertone with the goal of attracting a new and younger audience to the marque.