Alfa Romeo Tonale plug-in hybrid SUV set to debut on Feb. 8
We don't know much about the littlest Alfa SUV, but if it looks anything like the concept, it'll at least be handsome.
Alfa Romeo's
second US-bound SUV, the little plug-in hybrid Tonale, is set to make its debut online on Feb. 8, 2022, at 9 a.m. ET, according to Stellantis on Monday.
The debut of the Tonale comes as a bit of a surprise after Alfa CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato delayed the Tonale in 2021 over concerns that the drivetrain didn't offer enough performance. While it wasn't clear whether that meant overall power and torque or just that it lacked responsiveness, we can assume that the issues have been resolved if the sheet is coming off the production model.
We've been interested in the Tonale since it debuted in concept form in 2019, and while we don't know a lot about the production version (read: next to nothing), we can make some inferences about what we can expect. First, it looks as though the rear light treatment from the concept made its way to production, and that's great. The back end of the Tonale concept was super handsome overall, and we hope it doesn't get diluted.
The concept's interior was arguably the least plausible part of the whole thing, so we expect something slightly tamer in the production model. Still, we'll be shocked if a fully digital dash isn't at least available, if not standard, and uConnect 5 is almost a given for the infotainment system.
We've also done some wild speculation about the possibility of a performance-oriented Quadrifoglio version. While Alfa hasn't confirmed that it's happening, we'd be surprised if it didn't happen at some point, given Alfa's positioning in the US as a performance brand.
