First Sight: Production Alfa Romeo Tonale heralds “new era”

The Alfa Romeo Tonale finally unveiled in production form on Tuesday 8th February 2022, with CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato declaring the compact SUV as the “first of a new Alfa Romeo era”.

Key to that claim are new connectivity, digitisation and electrification offerings – the Tonale features Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, over-the-air software updates and hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains – but CDN readers will be understandably more interested in the production car’s form and function. At the virtual global unveil the Alfa Romeo design team – led by new boss Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos – made their presentation straight after the CEO, which is significant given how important design and indeed beauty is to the storied Italian brand.

But given Mesonero-Romanos only arrived in the role less than a year ago and had no bearing on the final design, it was appropriate that the designer responsible for this specific project, Alessandro Maccolini, did much of the talking.

The good news is that – via video link and early photos at least – the 2019 Tonale concept’s curvaeous exterior lines and volumes appear to have remained largely intact on the 2022 production model. Although the production body doesn’t seem to be quite as ‘full’ and the Alfa signature ‘telephone dial’ wheels have shrunk from 21 inches to 20, the Tonale’s stance is still decent. And while the flush or hidden door handles have made way for more grab-able ones that protrude from the surface alongside some minor shut-line shifts, the strong front face and rear lights retain the character of the concept. Which is important.

The slim, characterful and detailed front LED lights still frame the Alfa shield grille distinctively, while the badge nudges skyward into the bonnet area, ‘forcing’ the bonnet edge to curve around it. It’s a small detail but one that proves there are still a lot of curves in this Alfa, something not always easy to achieve cohesively within an SUV typology.

The production Tonale’s interior design is a greater departure from the concept though. While the basic IP architecture is broadly similar with a binnacle-style driver cluster and round air vents at each upper edge, and a centre screen embedded into the lower IP section, unsurprisingly the mysterious red-glowing central transmission tunnel is history, as is the pared-back steering wheel and switch gear.

Indeed, the production model looks fairly ‘stock’, with claimed innovations likely to reside within the centre touchscreen’s software and user experience rather than in the cabin’s physical layout. The Tonale’s colour and trim employs typical Alfa black with red accents, although the front seats’ upholstery – with repeated horizontal stitching and multiple perforations – stands out in a subtle way within the deeply bolstered seat edges.

The glaring absence in the Tonale’s spec sheet for a 2022 vehicle launch, is a full-electric powertrain option. There’s not even one planned within the generation of the model. However, Alfa intends to bring to market a different full EV in 2024 and all-new Alfas from 2025 onwards will be electric-only, inline and indeed in front of, some of its premium rivals.

At 4.53m long, 1.84m wide and 1.6m high its dimensions sit at the top end of the European compact SUV class where it overlaps with the lower reaches of the mid-size SUV segment, but a smaller SUV than the forthcoming Tonale and another one bigger than the existing Stelvio – think nearly five metres and seven seats – are in the design pipeline to cover more potential Alfa crossover customers.

Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo will be hoping the Tonale’s varied hybrid offering – available to order from April this year – will be enough to take on the likes of the Audi Q3 Sportback and Lexus UX in the premium compact SUV stakes. Overall, first signs are good and in line with what the Alfa design department told Car Design News back in 2019 when the Tonale concept first appeared.

“As a general statement, I don’t think I would do a concept car that later leads to disappointment,” said the then FCA Europe design boss and now Maserati design chief, Klaus Busse, before explaining more deeply, “but with the Tonale you can see our belief in hand sculpture and modelling in a time of digital and virtual reality (which we also use). The symbiosis between modeller and designer is very apparent, respecting where we come from, but interpreting it for the future.”