CASEY GOODE: Brian, I really don't
think this is a good idea.
BRIAN WONG: That's great.
I'm doing it anyway.
CASEY GOODE: Can we at least talk about
BRIAN WONG: No, no, no.
I got to go to Italy.
Bye.
CASEY GOODE: You forgot your laptop.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BRIAN WONG: I love a good heist movie more than just
about anything.
But in this case, it's not really Alfa
that did the stealing.
It was Dodge.
I'm here in Italy with the latest new vehicle from Alfa.
This is actually Alfa's first new vehicle
debut in about five years, and it is the compact SUV
called the Tonale.
It's also named for a mountain pass, much like the Stelvio is.
We first saw the Tonale in February of 2022,
but then the Dodge Hornet debuted about six months later,
and it rides on the same platform
and has the exact same power train.
When we tested the Dodge, there were things
that we liked about it and didn't like about it.
But this is a very important vehicle for Alfa
on its road to electrification.
Every Alfa that comes out after 2025
will be a full battery electric vehicle.
Just being a PHEV is the first step
along that journey for the Italian company.
But we're here in Italy to see if that Alfa DNA really
shines through in the Tonale or if it has more in common
with the Dodge.
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Alfa is a company that really loves
to talk about its history.
And it makes sense because the company is over 100 years old.
And I think that's part of why they brought us
all the way to Italy to try the Tonale to give us really
a view into that history.
Last night we actually had dinner at their museum,
where they walked us through the company's history
when it comes to racing and to making cars.
But Alfa in the modern sense, in the United States,
doesn't really have all that much history.
It really left for a while, and it's just recently come back.
And it only sells two models.
So in the United States for Alfa,
there's at least an opportunity for the company
to really redefine what Alfa means.
And the Tonale is a really important vehicle
along that road as the company steams headlong
into electrification.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The Tonale's overall shape doesn't really
scream Alfa to me.
It's not curvy and seductive in the way
that the Giulia and the Stelvio are.
It's a bit more utilitarian.
But that does pay dividends in a few ways,
as we'll talk about later.
But when you look at the details, very Alfa,
from these very cool circular 5-spoke wheels to the Start
button is on the steering whee.
And Alfa Romeo's logo is still by far
my favorite automotive logo.
Everyone else is playing for second,
and it's not particularly close.
You also get these very large aluminum column-mounted paddle
shifters as well.
So a lot of these details do really scream Alfa,
even if the overall look and shape doesn't.
Nobody would argue that the back seat
of either the Giulia or the Stelvio
is a strength in those vehicles.
But in the Tonale, they actually did a very good job
packaging it.
It's about six inches shorter than the Stelvio,
but it doesn't feel like you're giving up
any legroom or headroom at all.
So I'm 5'11", and I fit pretty well in this backseat.
At
Our first look of the Tonale, I was actually there
with one of our other editors, and he's 6' 4".
And he fit in the back seat behind me with the seat
up front set up where I like to drive.
So you can actually even fit some very tall passengers
back here, which is not something
that you can say about many of the other vehicles
in this segment.
This is a bit of a surprise coming from Alfa
because usually this is not something
that it seems like the company very much cares about.
But you have visible air vents back here.
You have two USB ports for charging as well.
They actually did quite a good job with this back seat.
So what is the Tonale working with?
It actually rides on a modified Jeep platform.
A plug-in hybrid powertrain that makes 285 total horsepower,
coming from a 1.3-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine
up front and an electric motor at the rear.
Now that electric motor is mated to a 15.5-kilowatt-hour
battery.
And that is big enough to give the Tonale
over 30 miles of electric range, says
Alfa, though an official EPA estimate is not yet available.
We're also missing EPA estimates for fuel economy.
So those are two things that are going
to test when we get the Tonale into the Edmunds offices
hopefully soon.
The Tonale has all-wheel drive.
The gas engine only drives the front wheels,
and the electric motor only drives the rear wheels.
And that means that when you're in electric mode,
that motor gives the Tonale some rear-wheel drive driving
dynamics that I appreciate.
The electric motor makes 121 horsepower,
and that's enough to get the Tonale up
to highway speeds with relative ease.
So the highways in Italy actually
have pretty high speed limits.
And right now, I'm cruising at 130 kilometers
per hour, which is about 80 miles an hour just
on electric power.
So actually the Tonale's EV mode, yes, you
can put it in the A drive setting, which
is the most efficient setting.
They didn't use an E for that because D and E does not
mean the same thing that D and A does this company.
If I do need to use that gas engine as I'm
pushing on the throttle, I can feel a little bit of a brake.
And once I push past that, then the gas engine
will kick on and give me more acceleration.
One weird thing, though, is that after I push past that point,
the gas engine turns on and actually
kicks me out of this drive mode into the normal drive mode.
So if I want to go back into driving with electric power
only, I have to go back to the drive selector
and turn it back down to A.
So similar to the Hornet, the suspension
has two different stiffness settings,
one for normal driving and the other one
that only gets activated when you're in the dynamic drive
mode.
The more comfortable suspension tuning
is not really my favorite.
It does a decent job of keeping things comfortable
and taking out road vibrations, but it's also a touch too soft.
So if you get on the brakes pretty hard,
the front dies a little bit too much,
and there's a little bit too much body roll for my liking.
The stiffer suspension setting does a much better job
of mitigating body roll.
But you can only access that suspension setting
while you're in dynamic.
There's no way to separate the two.
There's no custom drive mode either.
So I wish that there was a way to get the stiffer suspension
setting when you're in electric mode
or in its normal driving mode.
But Alfa doesn't really give you that level of choice.
Speaking of choices, you're also locked into region settings.
So there is a normal region and a high region setting.
But again, the high region setting
only available in dynamic mode.
There is this little e-Save button
here behind the shifter, which does
allow you to either hold the battery state of charge
or actually add charge back into the battery as you're driving.
That's really the only thing that you could choose.
Alfa takes a lot of the guesswork out of this.
Basically it says, we've set these modes up,
use them as you like.
But you're not going to have a lot of the customizability
that you get with some other plug-in hybrids, like the Prius
Prime, like the Volvo XC60 Recharge.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
In several different ways the Tonale
is a pretty compelling vehicle.
There are moments when you're driving it that it really
does feel like an Alfa.
But it also comes with a bit of practicality
as well with a back seat that's actually large enough
to fit adults, something that you can't say
about its other two vehicles.
Where the Tonale might run into a little bit of trouble
is its pricing.
So this Tonale Veloce that we tested here,
it added on a few options.
So these wheels that we really liked are two grand.
This very cool green paint, another two grand.
Add on an advanced safety package,
and the price jumps all the way up to about $58,000
with destination.
And that's a bit of an expensive proposition when you consider
that competitors like the BMW X1 and Audi Q3
start at a lower price and don't quite
reach this very high price point in this segment.
If you do want a plug-in hybrid and a small SUV,
the Tonale is kind of the only good option for you
in that sense.
But if you look at the price compared
to other vehicles in the segment,
it is unavoidably expensive.
We can't wait to get one into Edmunds headquarters
to test out its efficiency and its electric range.
The Tonale will go on sale this month
with delivery starting nationwide.
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