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By Jonathan Crouch

Alfa Romeo delivers a small SUV with real passion. Jonathan Crouch drives the Tonale.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 49

Striking, sleek and significant, Alfa Romeo's Tonale could hardly matter more to the Milanese maker. This compact SUV comes with electrified engines, a styling nod to the past and a very lovely cabin. Can it win over Teutonic brand customers looking for a change? It'll be interesting to see.

Backgroundword count: 182

So Alfa Romeo reinvents itself. Again. A few years ago, it was as a maker cable of credible SUVs. Now, it's as an electrified brand. Well, a partly electrified brand anyway. There's no Alfa EV yet, but we do at least have a proper hybrid product - and a car that will set a course for the next generation of Alfas, this one, the Tonale. It's a small SUV that sits just below the Stelvio in the company's line-up. It would be nice to report that this crossover is heart and soul Alfa from the ground up - as brand owners Stellantis tell us. The truth however is that almost all the engineering here, rather unpromisingly, is shared with a Jeep Compass - the chassis and both the drivetrains, which are of both the mild and plug-in hybrid sort. But if you love the marque, don't despair. We're told that this confection has been engineered with Alfa expectations very firmly in mind. And the styling certainly meets that brief, with enough pavement presence to make key German rivals look very dull indeed.

Driving Experienceword count: 262

This isn't an EV but it is partly electrified - though brand boss Jean-Philippe Imparato wants to qualify that: 'This is an Alfa Romeo first and then it is a hybrid'. What he means by that is that though most of the engines are available from more ordinary Fiats and Jeeps, the drive experience here has been developed to be uniquely Alfa. Our market won't get the conventional diesel and 2.0-litre petrol options that Alfa offers in other countries. Most UK Tonale customers will instead choose the 1.5-litre 48-volt mild hybrid four cylinder variable geometry turbocharged unit, offered here with only with 160hp. Strong, linear acceleration is promised, the e-motor filling in at low revs, before the turbo cuts in. Your alternative at the top of the range is a potent 280hp Plug-in Hybrid petrol AWD Q4 model. This pairs a 180hp version of an old Fiat 1.3-litre MultiAir engine with a rear-mounted 121bhp electric motor powered by a 15.5kWh battery which, when fully charged, can deliver a 49 mile EV range. The engine turns the front wheels via a 6-speed torque converter auto gearbox, while the e-motor powers the rear wheels, completing the Q4 AWD system. The Tonale Plug-in Hybrid Q4 accelerates from zero to 62mph in 6.2 seconds and onto a top speed of 84mph in full-electric mode (and 128mph in hybrid mode), with the e-AWD system providing instantaneous deployment of 100 per cent of available torque from the electric motor on the rear axle. The 4x4 hybrid system doesn't physically connect the two propulsion systems, but rather coordinates them.

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