Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce PHEV 2023 Review | Goodwood Test

Alfa Romeo’s company transformation is something we’ve spoken about many times on the pages of GRR. It’s a rapid turnaround for the Italian icon that should, if everything goes the CEO’s way, end with an all-electric lineup long before the sales of pure-combustion cars are actually banned.

But you really can’t just make the leap direct from making petrol- (and sometimes diesel)-engined cars for over a century into just sticking electric motors into them. Cars are complex machines, they just don’t work like that. So step one is actually to build some hybrids. In the Tonale’s case it also means finally building a car in one of the most lucrative markets around – the small SUV.

The trump card that Alfa Romeo has been able to play for perhaps its entire history is that it just has an eye for automotive design that some companies seem to lack. Even in the mid-2000s doldrums, the Alfa 159 was the standout car in its class for looks. But now Alfa Romeo makes good cars, we should be thankful that nothing was sacrificed in the design team under Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos.

The Tonale is the latest thing of beauty to behold from Turin. It brings a new face for Alfa Romeo, not a total departure, but an angular and purely pretty face. The headlights are now triple units, aping Alfa Romeos of the past, while at the back the long tail lights feature a use of body-with LED strips that outshines most others. Alfa Romeo was perhaps the first company to convince us that SUVs can look good, and the Tonale just reinforces that idea.

The focus of this particular review is the Veloce part of the words Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce. We have already drive the Tonale Plug-In Hybrid in the UK (here), but that was purely in the car’s “Speciale” base trim. Veloce doesn’t gain anything in powertrain terms – this is still a four-cylinder 1.3-litre petrol connected to a plug-in hybrid system. It still produces 280PS (206kW) max and 270Nm (199lb ft) combined. The electric motor is on the rear axle and provides 250Nm (184lb ft) and when it’s asked for everything the Tonale Veloce will hit 62mph in 6.2 seconds. That’s all exactly the same as the Speciale.

What the Veloce has that its sibling does not, is an adjustable damping system. If you haven’t read the Speciale review, go do it now, but in short adjustable damping would seem on the face of it to help solve some of the basic Tonale’s issues. I won’t keep you in suspense, but that’s exactly what they do. The steering is still lacklustre, but the damping in its firmer setting helps to communicate more of what the chassis is doing to you. We’ve always said, since we first drove the mild-hybrid Tonale in 2022, that this car has an excellent chassis, held back by everything between it and you. So to have a more sensible damping setting does make a big difference. 

Rather than learning to expect what the Tonale will do and trying to pre-empt it, you can more often react to the car’s movements. The car feels more comfortable in the corners, especially tighter ones, when it has its dampers turned to the max than the Speciale ever did.

It’s not all perfect. The steering is roughly the same, obviously made better by simply being attached to a better car, but still giving little in the way of information. And the powertrain is sluggish to work out what to do. There’s power and torque there, but the brain between electric motor and engine feels a little bit under-developed. It’s better than the frankly shocking system we found on the mild-hybrid, but still can leave you wondering where all the power has gone.

The real trump card of the Tonale, other than an exterior that makes people turn and look at an SUV, is the total redesign of its insides. The Tonale keeps all the best bits of interior design you found on the Guilia and Stelvio – the lovely steering wheel, the circular instrument binnacles – and supplements it with a new direction for Alfa interiors.

The screen – not so massive that it distracts from the road – sits proud of the dash, behind which is a choice of different materials, all backlit so they feel like a swanky hotel room. The material quality is high, with scratch plastics hard to find, although firm surfaces will bend more with a prod than its rivals.

The Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce plug-in hybrd that we drove cost £53,345 including some extra additions. But the Tonale Veloce starts at £48,495. That puts it squarely in Porsche Macan price territory. So Alfa Romeo has had to offset that by chucking kit into the Tonale. 

The obvious difference between standard Speciale and higher Veloce is that adaptive damping system, which is worth an extra £4,000 over the base car. But you also get that 10.25-inch touchscreen, which is simple to use and doesn’t seem to suffer from an over-proliferation of menus as some do. The rotary dial that used to control Alfa Romeo’s systems as an alternative is gone, but it isn’t that mourned because the screen’s touch functionality is decent.

Android Auto and Apple Car Play are standard, as is wireless phone charging. An electric adjusting seat is the preserve of the driver only – the passenger deals with six-way manual adjustment – while a powered boot, climate control, auto-sensing wipers and automatic headlights, sat nav, DAB radio, keyless entry and go, and font and rear parking sensors make up the bulk of the interesting tech. 

There has always been a lot going for the Tonale. It looks great on the outside and inside, the chassis is so good we’re begging Alfa Romeo for a Quadrifoglio edition with a Stelvio engine. But the bits that connect that interior to that let it down. The Veloce is only a small adjustment to the Tonale, but it’s a big enough adjustment to make us go from casting it aside from out thinking to sticking it in the maybe list.

The powertrain still feels like it’s a first attempt. But around town in EV mode it works quietly and efficiently. It’s not nippy, the electric torque feels throttled at times, but it’s not meant to be a complete monster. Find it an open road and some flowing corners and switch those dampers on and it’ll genuinely feel fun to drive. That’s its second advantage over something like a really base model Macan, which feels very much like you’ve been sold the most basic Porsche you can buy. The Tonale has some of the performance to match its looks in Veloce spec, which is a good thing. Now, about that Quadrifoglio?