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- Alfa Romeo needs a name for a new Sport Urban Vehicle codenamed "Kid," and is inviting social media users for suggestions.
- The automaker has turned to using names from its past, as well as Italian geography in its latest vehicles.
- The upcoming vehicle will be Alfa Romeo's first battery-electric model, the automaker has revealed.
It wasn't that long ago that Alfa Romeo relied on three numbers for model names, with the 164 being its last offering in the 1990s before the company temporarily called it quits in North America. The few exceptions were the Spider—a much older model that soldiered on till the 1990s—and the Milano, which was badged as the 75 in its home market.
But selling a small sedan as 155 or a small hatch as the 145 wasn't exactly using the Italian language to its full potential in marketing. However, the days of three digits are over. Now, Alfa Romeo wants your help in naming a new Sport Urban Vehicle, or what Alfa says will be an SUV codenamed "Kid" at the moment, that is slated be offered in the European market.
"After the Giulia marked the brand's renaissance, Alfa Romeo selected the names of two mountain passes, Stelvio and Tonale, as vehicle names," the automaker says, hinting at some possible preference for geographic names.
Indeed, it's difficult to believe that Zagato adopted the Stelvio badge earlier than Alfa Romeo for a Nissan-based coupe, about three decades ago, before Moto Guzzi used it in 2007 for a motorcycle, and before Alfa Romeo itself dusted off the name for a crossover just a few years ago.
Giulia, on the other hand, was a range of popular Alfa models from the 1960s, competing with the BMW Neue Klasse cars.
"While the Tonale marked the brand's 'metamorphosis' into electrification, Alfa Romeo's upcoming product will be the first full-electric vehicle," the automaker also disclosed.
Let's face it—if you open up Google maps, the names of many Italian towns large and small would sound good, and a lot of them haven't been used by the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, or the sprawling number of etceterini of decades past. So that's where we'd start looking for a name for a new sport utility, specifically in the Italian Alps, since it has to convey some sense of adventure and ruggedness.
The automaker has already shot down one possible name that appears to have been floated in recent weeks.
"Rumors of 'Brenner' as the next nameplate are false," the automaker said.
Indeed, Brenner either sounds like a store brand of food, or the name of one of your son or daughter's classmates. (There are probably multiple Brenners in their class, if we're being realistic here.) But Brenner is actually a name of a mountain pass in Italy, so that wasn't a bad guess per se. It just doesn't sound Italian. On this basis we can probably also rule out Splügen, Kaltwasser, and Timmelsjoch passes, while we're here.
The Alfa model itself is slated to be unveiled in the first half of 2024, so there is some time to peruse Italian geography. And if recent naming conventions are any indication, Alfa Romeo would probably be comfortable with something that would be easy to spell and pronounce in several markets.
Alfa Romeo wants to hear your thoughts on its social media channels. There is no prize for guessing the name, however, as the fine print reveals.
Will Alfa Romeo pick another mountain pass for the name of its next model, or will we see something different? Let us know what you think.
Jay Ramey grew up around very strange European cars, and instead of seeking out something reliable and comfortable for his own personal use he has been drawn to the more adventurous side of the dependability spectrum. Despite being followed around by French cars for the past decade, he has somehow been able to avoid Citroën ownership, judging them too commonplace, and is currently looking at cars from the former Czechoslovakia. Jay has been with Autoweek since 2013.
