The Italian brand is starting the electrification phase with a visually appealing compact SUV. The vehicle will initially come as a mild hybrid with sophisticated technology.
The flat hood is one of the distinguishing features of the Alfa Romeo Tonale, as are the characteristic tick lights.
Those responsible around Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato have threaded this well. The traditional brand starts its long march towards CO at the birthplace of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the first battery, in Como2-free car. The compact SUV Tonale is the first vehicle to come onto the market these days, but the electrification of the drive is initially seen as a mild hybrid variant.
A lean four-cylinder turbo petrol engine works with the combustion mode that is called Miller Cycle and, roughly simplified, uses a lower compression ratio. The turbocharger has variable blade geometry for greater efficiency. It all sounds very technical, but in this way a lot of fuel can be saved in the engine.
A lean-burn engine, on the other hand, does not match Alfa Romeo’s brand values. The engine therefore needs electrical support from a 20 hp electric motor, which helps to move the Tonale quickly when there is a high demand for power. A second electric drive is housed in the vehicle in the form of a belt starter generator. With it, the car becomes a mild hybrid, which also makes it possible to recover energy (so-called recuperation) or to completely decouple the petrol engine drive, for example when the vehicle is rolling.
The rear has harmonious lines, which contributes to the relaxed overall image of the Tonale.
What sounds very complex results in low consumption and correspondingly low CO2emissions, but Alfa Romeo is still a long way from a purely electric drive. Perhaps that’s why product director Daniel Guzzafame ignited a veritable firework of superlatives at the presentation, including the description of the infotainment screen as the fastest center display on the market.
Guzzafame is particularly proud of the introduction of a non-fungible token (NFT) as a kind of certificate for buyers of an Alfa Romeo Tonale, intended for eternity and intended as a virtual reminder of once having bought and driven a Tonale – forgery-proof. Customers will not have been waiting for this, except for a few who want to hang their title deeds on the wall in the metaverse.
The design of the four-door SUV, on the other hand, seems a little more immortal. It seemed like a big hit from the moment the Tonale concept car was unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, and the production model has strayed only slightly from that. The lights, each with three “light ticks” per headlight and rear light, are striking, which sets the Tonale apart from the other models of the brand. But the harmonious lines of the body, which are geared more to elegance than technology, are also striking.
The daytime running light signature makes the Alfa Romeo unique.
Inside, the driver can expect an extremely comfortable and yet firm seat, the same applies to all seats. A 12.3-inch display extends in front of the steering wheel, next to it is the aforementioned central touchscreen, which responds quickly to touch, but which clearly lacks display speed in navigation mode, for example when driving through a roundabout.
The quality of workmanship in the interior is convincing, as is the size of the trunk with exactly 500 liters of storage space, which almost matches the value of the competition. Months before the launch of the Tonale, this area was one of the attributes rated as insufficient by CEO Imparato, which is why the timing of the unveiling had to be postponed.
Typical Alfa Romeo: The start button is integrated in the steering wheel, the DNA rotary knob should not be missing either (top left in the center console).
One of the highlights of the new model is the chassis. As Domenico Bagnasco, responsible for the driving performance of the Alfa Romeo Tonale, explains, the front axle geometry has been designed in such a way that understeer on corner entry is suppressed more than in other vehicles. In fact, the car turns in surprisingly well, especially on dry pavement. The steering remains precise at all times, the body roll is low for a vehicle of this format, i.e. not electronically “operated away”.
On the trip around Lake Como, the front-wheel drive had good traction. We drove the more powerful version of the mild hybrid Tonale with 160 hp, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and front-wheel drive. The tuning with a fairly softly sprung front axle and a stiff rear axle is just right for a front-wheel drive vehicle if the chassis is built to be torsion-resistant. Bagnasco’s team did a good job. The electronically controlled dynamic torque distribution to both drive wheels provides additional traction assistance.
Good traction is particularly important on narrow and winding roads. The Alfa Romeo Tonale delivers good values here.
As always, a rotary switch selects three driving programs. However, the Alfa SUV is only really dynamic in dynamic mode, as was shown on the winding journey. The DNA switch has been part of every Alfa Romeo for more than ten years, so it can also be found in the slightly weaker 130 hp variant, the proud price of which starts at 46,900 francs. The compact SUV should not be a cheap offer, the complex hybrid drive ensures higher acquisition costs.
Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato is likely to have a large part in the success of the astonishingly high quality of the Tonale. He approached the task with the necessary passion, as he explains emphatically: “A new age of quality begins with the tonal. In the past, if you wanted to drive an Alfa Romeo, you needed two vehicles, one for driving and one for the workshop. From now on you only need one.»
Imparato was the right choice for Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. The Frenchman with Italian roots has the right motivation and knows that the road to achieving the targets will be rocky over the next ten years: “We love this patient Alfa Romeo.”