New Tonale: the Metamor(ti)fosi!

The new baby Alfa Romeo was born at 3pm, after a gestation period of 3 years. He is the new Tonale (named after an Italian Alpine pass that is lower than the Stelvio, which is logical!) A compact SUV to rival the Peugeot 3008, Audi Q5 and BMW X3.

Exterior: the owner's tour

On the outside, the design is signed by the Centro Stile Alfa Romeo. Length of 4.53m, height of only 1.60m for a width of 1.84mThe Tonale has a compact and rugged look. While the design doesn't have the "wow" factor, it is still quite faithful to the concept of 2019in its spirit, design and proportions. The grille is "floating" and seems to emerge from the front. Regrets in spite of everything The front and rear lights are less original and tapered than on the concept and the rear door handles are clearly visible, breaking with a fine Alfa tradition that favored the smooth sculpting of the sides and offered less of the "family" aspect that emerges here on this SUV. As for the mirrors, they fall in line. Not just anyone can be a Honda-e!

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Some reminders of the brand's past. The headlights are reminiscent of those of the SZ, while the grille, the Trilobo and other 5-hole "telephone" rims are typical of the firm. The rear, with its luminous band, does not recall anything particular from the past but sticks to the air of time, after having disappeared in the 90s. On the other hand, we will appreciate the rear window ending in a point in its lower part.

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Interior: typically Alfa!

The cockpit is oriented towards the driver. And yes, an Alfa is driven and it is very selfish. Without being particularly original, the whole seems well designed but also moves away from the Concept of 2019 to fit in with standard industrial processes and without taking risks.

In any case, we find the 3-spoke steering wheel with large, fixed aluminum paddles on the steering wheels, the digital meters but with a needle pattern (to keep a typical sporty touch), "well" counters and a touch tablet for the modern look and to satisfy the gicks. The DNA selector is of course part of the game, as is the start button on the steering wheel. We will note thin vents in the center and turbine-shaped vents on the sides.

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Technologies: the tank is full!

The Tonale inaugurates the world premiere of the NFT technology  (Non-Fungible Token). It is a digital certificate. This technology is based on the concept of a "blockchain card", confidential and non-modifiable recording of the main stages in the life of a vehicle. Upon agreement of the customer, the technology will record the vehicle data, generating a certificate to establish that the vehicle has been properly maintainedThis is useful for the second hand market and therefore the second hand market. This is useful for second hand resale and therefore the second hand market. This will hopefully increase the value of the Alfa. But all of this will necessarily (not?) force a follow-up in the network and thus lead to a certain imprisonment of the customer, a bit like Apple, with the prices that go with it...

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The Tonale also includes theAlexa voice assistantin partnership with Amazon. Partnership also visible thanks to the " Secure Delivery Service The company's "Tonale" service allows, for example, to choose Tonale as the delivery location for packages by unlocking the doors remotely to allow the service provider to drop them off in the car in complete safety. This makes your car your second home. Finally, as with any car today, there are many technological aids making the driver an assistant a soothing being for the benefit of relaxation. Thus, we will note, in addition to the ordinary safety aids, autonomous driving level 2, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, automatic emergency braking, detection of pedestrians and cyclists, drowsiness detector ... Finally, among the gadgets too useful to some, the remote control of the vehicle using a smartphone, a Wi-Fi system, the induction smartphone charger, the electrically opening tailgate ...

All this without forgetting the infotainment system with a 12.3" all-digital instrumentation and a 10.25 inch central touch screen.

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Engine ? Quiet! It's running!

The Tonale is finally theelectrification of the brand of Arese. And not just a little! All available engines are electrified. First, a new 1.3L Hybrid engine with 160 hpexclusive to Alfa, combined with a 7-speed dual clutch transmission and a 48V motorThis allows the SUV to move even with the engine off, at low speeds and for parking maneuvers.

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A 130 hp version of this 1.5 engine will also be available at launch in June. This engine has just been introduced by its platform cousin, the Jeep Compass, and is always paired with Alfa Romeo's 7-speed TCT transmission.

Finally, a Hbrbide rechargeable version will also be available. The engine has a displacement of 1.3L (the same as Compass and Renegade) drives the front wheels while the electric drive system drives the rear wheels, making this Tonale a 4-wheel drive version with Q4 badge. The total power is given for 275 hpThis is more than the 240 hp of the Compass/Renegade duo. The electric range is announced at 60 km in mixed cycle (manufacturer value).

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Finally, the range will be completed by the new 1.6-liter diesel engine with 130 hp and 320 Nm of torque, combined with the Alfa Romeo TCT 6-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and front-wheel drive.

Finally, 2 finishes are available: Super and Ti. The Super finish, access to the Alfa Romeo world, can be customized with the Sprint pack, which includes many features with a strong sporting connotation.

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The Ti finish, which reinforces the elegance and distinctive character of Tonale, can be upgraded with the Veloce package, the pinnacle of performance and sportiness.

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9 Comments

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  1. Frankly I was afraid but I find it very successful! I'm not a big fan of SUVs but I find it really not bad.

    To see with the prices... if it is more than 37-38k€ it will be quite expensive...

  2. The interior seems to be very well designed, personally I hate the rectangular tiles that are placed on the dashboards of Mercedes or BMW. Ergonomics also looks accomplished with the physical buttons. And the infotainment system looks like UConnect 5. It's better than at Peugeot.

  3. After the first impression, where we inevitably compare with the concept, the final car is very attractive, and much better designed than the very first pictures, too dark, let us suppose.
    The interior is very nice (the "Heritage" meters are excellent, that's what we expect from Alfa! ) but it's impossible for the moment to know if they have properly worked on the perceived quality, so important in this market segment.
    On the other hand, hats off to the infotainment and on-board technologies!
    The NFT to guarantee traceability is a master stroke!
    A lot of positives, an Alfa well of its time, I hope it will be a hit!

  4. In this category, which is very popular these days, the Tonale looks successful and Alfa seems to be giving itself the means to boost its sales. It remains to be seen what this will do in terms of dynamics, but we can be reasonably confident, even if the platform is not the Giorgio but the Jeep one, Alfa's developers know their stuff and know that they mustn't miss out because, since the Giulia, the quality of the platform is a differentiating advantage for Alfa compared to the competition. It's a very professional answer to the crying need for Alfa to make volume (the price issue will be complicated, we have to gain market shares, but we also have to cultivate a premium image that will allow us to generate margins in the future when volumes will have increased, so we have to set the bar neither too high nor too low...) but does the Tonale bring much to a very saturated market compared to competitors such as the BMW X2, Audi Q3 or Peugeot 3008? Of course, the interior presentation is nice, the NFT token is a very good idea to support the residual values, it's also good to keep the telephone rims and to make reference to the Bertone coupe or the SZ to show a filiation that we would have perhaps difficulty to discover alone. But, despite all these meritorious efforts, an SUV is still an SUV, and, personally, it doesn't make me climb the curtains. I admit that I'm a bit of a killjoy and probably a bit old school. I deeply hope that the Tonale and then the Brennero will be successful enough to allow Alfa Romeo, even with Stellantis and electrics, to launch later on reinterpretations of the duetto, the GTV or the Alfetta of the great era, in short, cars still capable of making us dream.

  5. Aesthetically speaking, the Stelvio is more beautiful but I'm waiting to see the Tonale in June. As for Alfa Romeo's sales volumes, even if the Stelvio and Giulia didn't make big volumes, we can still say that these two models did a lot of good for ALFA ROMEO's image! The Giulia has just received its umpteenth award in Germany and the USA is the first market of Alfa Romeo! Let's wait and see what the Tonale will bring in terms of sales. In an interview, JP Imparato announced that the Pomigliano factory can produce 35k units per year and can go up to 75k units per year. Therefore, we should not expect large volumes. Concerning the absence of totally thermal engine in Europe, I find it a bit sad!

    My Stelvio has just turned 4 years old, 145k kilometers. I will soon change it for a Giulia: this car is so beautiful!

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