First Look at the 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale

Alfa Romeo is an iconic Italian automaker. Its vehicles have won countless accolades as the cases full of trophies at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Milan demonstrate. That rich heritage includes not just race cars, but production cars for the rest of us, each imbued with performance DNA. The Alfa Romeo Tonale is the latest vehicle to arrive on US shores. This plug-in hybrid crossover joins a sea of existing crossovers, but this one is very different.

The team at Alfa Romeo flew a small group of automotive journalists over to Milan to experience the new Tonale in its home country. Alfa Romeo also gave us a unique glimpse into the history of the brand with a tour of the factory and dedicated time with the designers and executives that brought it to life.

If you’ve never been to a car museum and you’re a fan of cars, then you need to put this experience on your list. We had a private tour that included everything from the first Alfa, which has wooden wheels that need to be soaked in water to expand properly before its annual start-up, to legendary race cars.

The whole experience was fascinating. It wasn’t just a bunch of cars in a museum. It was a history lesson. It was a legacy of automotive innovation and design that continues with their newest offering, the 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale. They even took us behind-the-scenes to see all the things they don’t have room to display. We were allowed to view row upon row of beautiful cars, concept vehicles that never came to fruition, prototypes, and bits of engines and memorabilia. We were late for dinner and still didn’t have time to see it all, but it was totally worth the side-eye from catering.

At dinner, we had the chance to hear directly from the executive team. I’m not gonna lie. Chatting with executives can, at times, be tiresome, even with fine Italian wine in the mix. Not this time. The team at Alfa is genuinely enthusiastic and passionate about the brand. While there was plenty of what the PR folks wanted us to hear, there was also plenty that was, shall we say, more colorful than the talking points. These guys very much want to build cars that honor the Alfa heritage while embracing an electric future, bean counters be damned.

This brings us to the Tonale. It’s already available in Europe, but is just now coming to the US where it is only going to be sold as a plug-in hybrid. According to the aforementioned executives, that’s because they wanted to give us the best option available. Not having driven European variants we won’t get, I couldn’t say for sure, but I can say that the Tonale is quite good.

This is a crossover, not a sports car. However, that unmistakable Alfa Romeo grille combines with sleek styling to make the Tonale look every bit a sporty Alfa. Inside, there are heavily bolstered seats that hold you in place on corners that you should probably be taking more slowly but are taking fast anyway because the Tonale is just so darn fun.

Power comes from a 1.3-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with a 15.5-kWh battery and a 90-kW rear e-motor. That gives you 285 combined horsepower and 347 lb-ft of torque with a 6-speed automatic transmission. There are upwards of 30 miles of all-electric range with exact fuel economy figures still to come. There are also four drive modes that take it from a focus on efficiency to pure performance. You can probably guess which one we liked best. No matter which you choose, however, the Tonale delivers a sporty, engaging drive that makes getting there half the fun.

It also has the latest tech with a 10.25-inch infotainment screen and a digital instrument cluster. This display includes a stylized version of the snake in the Alfa badge with a plug replacing its head. It changes colors as you go from electric to gas power and if you look real close, you’ll see that same plug-in snake symbol hidden as a little Easter egg elsewhere on the Tonale.

Driving the Tonale was a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed every minute of winding my way through many very narrow Italian roads with beautiful views, but perhaps the most entertaining part of the event was the product presentation. Stay with me here, because this is important. There was the usual talk about market share and pricing and features and engineering, but the standout moment came from Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato.

A mild-mannered CEO he is not. He spoke about the challenges of being a small Italian brand and how Alfa’s reputation for building quality cars has tarnished over time. His intention is to change that perception and told us that he informed the company that “shitty” cars were no longer acceptable. He really stood there and told us he wasn’t going to let them build any more shitty cars, along with a few more colorful phrases my editor probably won’t let me print.

I’m not sure what was more entertaining. Listening to Imparato speak without reservation about exactly what he thinks about absolutely everything or watching the rest of the Alfa team trying to keep a straight face. There’s a chance that if there was the automotive equivalent of the Oscars hurry-up music, they’d have been playing it at full volume to get him off-stage. It was brilliant. It’s also key to what’s driving Alfa Romeo. There’s a history here and it’s a rich one full of achievements in racing and engineering.

It’s not just a car company that happens to be in Italy. It’s a car company that is part of the fabric of Italy and the people who work there are proud of their country and their company. That pride shines through in the design and engineering of the Tonale, and it’s a large part of what makes this crossover unlike all the rest.