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Jurgen, what are you doing?
Are we testing boats today?
Ahoy Niko.
No, we're staying dry.
But we are dealing with a car brand that has had a list for years and at times even disappeared completely: Alfa Romeo.
Last summer, however, Alfa launched a new car after five years without a premiere.
And that should become a lifeline for the brand.
The chances that there is a bit of lift from the car are not bad at all.
Because it is a medium-sized SUV.
And that's exactly the car class that's very popular at the moment.
We do a lap in the Alfa Romeo Tonale and before we get into the car, I put the lifebelt in the trunk.
Nico, we can take a look inside the trunk right at the start today.
That's him.
It has a volume of 500 liters and if you fold down the rear seat backs, it becomes 1550 liters.
There is not much more to say about it.
And let's take a look at the whole car anyway!
This is the Alfa Romeo Tonale, which takes its name from the Tonale Pass in the Italian Alps.
Above all, it is the first Alpha model with an electrified drive.
We'll get to that later.
Now let's take care of the design.
And there you can immediately recognize this Alfa also carries the classic features of the brand, for example the Scudetto radiator grille.
Scudetto is the Italian word for sign, as well as the license plate attached to the side, which is a bit reminiscent of a cigarette hanging casually in the corner of the mouth.
Or the large 20-inch wheels in the classic telephone dial design of our test car.
Our car also has the Veloce equipment and you can tell that by the fact that the Scudetto is anthracite in color.
There are also frames around the wheel arches, anthracite-colored rocker panels and black-framed side windows.
Underneath this sporty outfit is the technical platform that was originally developed for the Jeep Compass.
Jeep and Alfa Romeo have both belonged to the Fiat Chrysler Group for a long time.
And that in turn has been part of the Stellantis Group since 2021.
The Tonale is unmistakably an SUV, albeit one with smoothly curved shapes rather than boxy ones.
The car is 4.53 meters long, 1.84 wide and 1.61 high.
A pretty big lifebelt that Alfa put there.
Of course, whether it can fulfill its task also depends on what it looks like inside and, above all, how it drives.
We'll sort that out next.
Welcome to a journey back in time, into the past at that, just as the exterior design is defined by numerous classic features, so is the interior, as one knows and expects from Alfa.
For example, there is a sporty three-spoke leather steering wheel with fixed aluminum shift paddles behind it.
There is this cockpit fairing with these two characteristic scoops.
There are classic climate control buttons here, eleven neatly in a row.
There is a lot of black in the interior, especially black-upholstered sports seats here, which are tightly contoured and smartly designed, and there are numbers on the speedometer scale that are always turned so that they are never upside down.
In addition to these retro elements, the modern can of course also be found here in the Alfa Romeo Tonale, for example a 12.3-inch digital cockpit or this 10.2-inch touchscreen, which is used to control the on-board computer and infotainment.
However, controlling here with a fingertip is not that easy.
You often get tangled up in these menus, which aren't configured that super catchy and logically.
But there is also standard Alexa voice control here in the car and that is activated here via this steering wheel button.
Alfa Romeo also advertises that the Tonale is the first car in the world to store vehicle data and maintenance work via an NFT certificate.
So that means via anti-counterfeit blockchain technology.
What is this?
Alfa argues that this provides unequivocal proof of how the car has been cared for and maintained, which increases its resale value if you decide to sell it at all.
Of course we don't want that.
We want to drive now.
Nico for you that means: get in.
Understood.
At the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, you actually expect a boisterous, somewhat rough and over-the-top car.
But this expectation is exposed here in the tonal as a cliché.
Because it's not a sporty hotspur, but a good-natured family car.
The steering, the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the petrol engine and the 48-volt electric motor of the hybrid system form a solid and harmonious unit, although the steering is a bit soft, almost sometimes a bit spongy, and the automatic, well, that Dual-clutch transmission shifts gears a little sluggishly at times, especially when driving in Advanced Efficiency driving mode.
Incidentally, driving modes are set here using this rotary control.
N for normal, D for Dynamica, dynamic or A for Advanced Efficiency.
And here, with this button in the middle, the chassis can also be adjusted between comfort and sport.
So no big surprises here in the tonal range.
Unfortunately, it's also no surprise that the view to the rear is very limited.
As in many other cars, there is little consideration in the tonal area or there is hardly any view to the rear.
Hopefully we'll see a bit more in a moment, because we're looking under the front hood.
Alfa Romeo offers the Tonale with three different engines, as a diesel, as a plug-in hybrid and as a mild hybrid with a 48-volt system.
This latter variant, which is in our test car, namely a 1.5-liter turbocharged petrol engine, a four-cylinder with an output of 160 hp.
This corresponds to 118 kW and a maximum torque of 240 Newton meters.
There is also an electric motor integrated into the transmission.
It has an output of 15 kW, which corresponds to 20 hp and develops a maximum torque of 55 Newton meters.
The top speed of the Tonale is 212 km/h and the average consumption according to the WLTP standard is 6.5 liters per 100 kilometers.
However, realistically and in everyday use, as we drive the car, you need about one to one and a half liters more.
The energy for the electric motor comes from a battery that weighs 13.5 kilos and is installed between the front seats.
And it is charged exclusively via recuperation, which means that the energy is recovered when the car coasts.
When starting off, when maneuvering and when swimming slowly in traffic, the machine can move the tonale on its own.
Above all, it is there to keep fuel consumption as low as possible.
We're going to try that out a bit and do another round.
Alfa Romeo has been building cars for 113 years.
And this is the first car that is at least subtly electrified.
It's also the brand's first compact SUV and a model that wants to be practical, comfortable and everyone's darling above all else.
Alfa itself calls the car a milestone and it looks as if it could also become a life preserver.
A second shift has just been introduced at the Pomigliano d'Arco plant in Italy, where the car is built.
What we like about the Alfa Romeo Tonale is its sleek design, classically styled interior and the fact that it's the first Alfa ever to come with a five-year warranty.
There are minus points for the sometimes confusing multimedia menu, the soft steering and the once again poor rear view.
How much does the car cost here?
The Alfa Tonale starts at €36,300 and our Veloce-equipped hybrid test car is €45,300.
And Niko, it doesn't matter what colour, what drive system and what equipment: you're practically always driving an ambulance with the Tonale.
