FORECOURT
ALFA ROMEO TONALE Under the bonnet
The Tonale combines a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with a compact electric motor and battery.
THE KNOWLEDGE Alfa Romeo Tonale Starting price (est): £35,000-£36,000 Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with 48-volt mild-hybrid assistance Power: 158bhp Torque: 240Nm Max speed: 130mph O-60mph: 8.8 seconds MPG (combined): 44.8-49.6 Emissions: 130-144g/km CO2
The Tonale has been a long time in the making, but what’s it like now it’s finally here? Jack Evans went to Italy to get the answers. WHAT IS IT? The Alfa Romeo Tonale was first revealed at the Geneva Motor Show way back in 2019 where it arrived as a new addition to Alfa’s SUV range, slotting underneath the Stelvio. However, it has taken up until now for it to reach the public road. WHAT’S NEW? On top of the usual Alfa Romeo styling – which looks even better in the metal than it does in pictures, in our opinion – there aims to be even greater driver involvement through tuned dynamics, as well as good levels of practicality and standard equipment. It’s capable of receiving over-the-air updates, too, while Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant has been fully integrated to allow you to communicate with other compatible devices in your home. For instance, you could ask your home smart speaker to tell you the fuel level. WHAT’S UNDER THE BONNET? For now, there’s just a single engine option coming to the UK that combines a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with a compact electric motor and battery for improved efficiency and the ability to run on EV-only power at very slow speeds, such as when parking or in traffic. Soon, Alfa Romeo will add a full plug-in hybrid setup to the Tonale range, which will be capable of returning around 37 miles of electric-only range. All cars are front-wheel drive, sending power through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DRIVE? Moving off, the Tonale does well to maintain that silent electric-only propulsion that you get from larger-battery hybrids, which makes town driving very pleasant, as well as quiet. Of course, the engine soon cuts in, but the transition is reasonably smooth, with the 1.5-litre unit producing a surprisingly pleasant engine note when asked to provide more power. It feels reasonably brisk, too, and is backed by pleasant steering that feels accurate. On twisty roads, the Tonale is really composed and impressively level, in fact. However, the seven-speed gearbox lets the package down, as it’s dim-witted and at times feels a little lost in its own ratios. HOW DOES IT LOOK? It’s a great looking thing – in our eyes, at least – with a really purposeful front end and an
34 | CarDealerMag.co.uk
