Personality can be played, but you need to fill your stomach first.
Author: Rao Weihao
Alfa Romeo, an Italian car brand with a history of more than a hundred years and a sports gene deep in the marrow. Five years ago, FCA brought this passion from the Apennine Peninsula into the domestic market, which attracted countless fans to cheer and the media circle was also applauded. Five years later, the Giulia and Stelvio are still the best driving machines in their class, and just as prominent as the controls are dismal sales. The 6.5% discount on the clearance price is the confidence of the dealer, the news of delisting does not go away, "applause not to be applauded" has become the epitaph of Alpha Romeo, but how did the "four Ferraris" come to this point? Small space, poor quality control, after-sales costs, and low residual value are all symptoms. The reality is harsh, and the enjoyment at the driving level has never been the appeal of a few people.
Personality can be played, but how do you need to fill your stomach first? The FCA is clearly unlikely to allow Alfa Romeo to continue to "mess" up, and after the merger of the group with PSA, Stellantis, which became the world's fourth-largest automaker, put a plan to save the Italians on the agenda.
One day, a conversation between the Stellantis hierarchy and Master Alpha Romeo.
"What car is hottest right now?"
"SUV."
"What SUV is the most expensive?"
"What an entry-level compact SUV. The price is cheap, the whole world likes it, the body is small, and the base European market is also acceptable. ”
"Is there anything readily available?"
"The design uses the Tonale Concept concept car from three years ago, the exterior is copied, and the interior is mass-produced and modified. The platform uses the CMP of the PSA next door to reduce costs. Now the popular electrification, we also have a power, light mix, plug and mix all arranged, but also to retain pure fuel to please those old stubborn. ”
"The idea is good, it's fixed like this, slippery."
Pictured is the 2019 Tonale Concept
Thus, there is our protagonist today, Alfa Romeo Tonale, who, as Stelvio is named, is named after a scenic Italian mountain road. As the brand's second SUV model, the lower-positioned Tonale did not adopt a rear-drive platform with a higher "keyboard value" like the big brother Stelvio, but used the PSA Group CMP platform to build, the front horizontal front drive (four-wheel drive) layout, effectively reducing the R & D and production costs of Tonale, in order to reduce the price and enhance competitiveness.
First look at the appearance, Tonale uses the Alfa Romeo family-style "inverted triangle" front face grille, and the three-stage wavy headlight set is the brand's first, quite the charm of the legendary model 159, which is very eye-catching.
Like BMW, Alpha Romeo's long-standing front face design is enough for you to tell at a glance on the road, and such recognition is quite rare in the industry. Of course, on the question of where the license plate is hung, the following figure gives the answer, the current sale of Giulia and Stelvio also use the way of side listing photos, good look is really good-looking, personality is also really personality, but in and out of some parking lots can not let the machine automatically identify the license plate number of the problem, it does bother many car owners.
The most eye-catching on the side is the unique "petal" rim of the Alfa Romeo brand, which reaches 20 inches in size, and the unique shape can highlight the Brembo four-piston brake calipers in the rim, with a strong sporty atmosphere. Unfortunately, tonale, based on the front-drive platform, does not have the elegance of the Stelvio long front. Tonale's body size is 4528/1835/1604mm, although it is a circle smaller than Stelvio, but the space utilization rate of the front-drive platform is relatively high, and the wheelbase of the two cars is exactly the same, 2818mm, I believe that the space performance in the car will not be too far apart.
The taillights echo the headlights, also using a three-stage wavy strip design, the two sides of the taillights through the tailgate, converging at the LOGO, below is tonale's artistic font, highlighting the brand characteristics at the same time very beautiful, Italian design never disappoints.
The new car features a hidden exhaust layout that is a bit counterintuitive to a car brand that emphasizes sports pedigree.
Compared with the appearance, Tonale's interior freshness is not so strong, from the air conditioning outlet, door handles and other details of the design can see a lot of Stelvio's shadow, with a double barrel silhouette of the 12.3-inch full LCD dashboard, providing three theme options, sports and technology are in place.
The oversized metal paddles fixed to the steering column are mouth-watering, the ancestral DNA driving mode knob is fixed under the air conditioning control panel, tilted towards the driver, and the start button is also mounted on the steering wheel for a combative feel.
The central control adopts a 10.25-inch touch screen, built-in new human-computer interaction system, equipped with 4G network, support voice control and OTA upgrades. What is more crotch-pulling is that the electronic gear handle on the Stelvio has been castrated and replaced by a mechanical stopbar with an excessive Jeep flavor, and the shape is also incompatible with the sports atmosphere cockpit.
The flanks on both sides of the front seats are prominent, the wrapping feeling should not be bad, and the headrest is embroidered with the Alfa Romeo red LOGO, which does look a bit Ferrari.
In terms of technology configuration, Tonale offers a wealth of options. Driver fatigue monitoring, AEB active braking system, 360-degree panoramic imaging, blind spot monitoring, rear intersection monitoring, automatic parking and other functions are all available, in addition to the new car will also have a set of L2 level advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), including intelligent ACC adaptive cruise, lane centering, TJA traffic congestion assistance system and other functions. In terms of comfort equipment, the front seats provide heating and ventilation, and the sound uses the 14-speaker HARMAN Caton.
Tonale offers a variety of options in the powertrain, according to the announcement of the scene, some sales areas will provide pure fuel version, gasoline version will use a 2.0T four-cylinder turbo engine, the maximum power can reach 260 horses, peak torque 400 Nm, the data is still beautiful. This is matched by a transverse 9AT gearbox with a four-wheel drive system as standard. Although the official does not say, this powertrain and four-wheel drive system are most likely taken from Jeep next door. In the European market, Tonale will also be available in a pure diesel version with a maximum power of 132 hp, matched by a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission and only available in a front-drive version.
However, the main power system promoted this time is not them, but two sets of "live" power systems. The entry-level Tonale will be in the form of a light mix, with a built-in 48-volt 15KW, 55 Nm "P2" electric motor that can be started and driven in electric mode at low speed, parked or cruising, greatly improving efficiency. The new 1.5T four-cylinder turbocharged engine has two power versions to choose from, corresponding to 132 horsepower (130HP) and 162 horsepower (160HP), of which the high-power version will add VTG variable geometry turbo technology, which can effectively reduce turbo lag, improve power response, improve the overall efficiency of the engine, is currently the leading turbocharging technology. Matching this powertrain is a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, which is only available in the front-drive version. I don't doubt Alfa Romeo's vehicle tuning power, but this main power system is too "buying vegetables".
Another live-in hybrid version is powered by a 1.3T four-cylinder turbocharged engine that delivers power from the front axle and a motor with a maximum power of 90 kW (122 hp) on the rear axle, which is powered by a battery pack with a capacity of 15.5 kWh. The plug-in hybrid model has a maximum power of 279 hp (275 HP), matches a 6AT automatic transmission, and comes with a four-wheel drive system, 0-100km/h acceleration in just 6.2 seconds, the most powerful version of the series. The new car can travel 80 kilometers in pure electric mode, and when using a 7.4kW charger, it takes only 2.5 hours for a battery charge. In addition, the fuel tank capacity of the car is 42.5 liters.
According to the official, Tonale will officially start delivering users in June this year, and new cars will also enter the domestic market. On the day of the release of the new car, Alfa Romeo's official Weibo also tentatively issued a collection of pricing opinions, of which the lowest price of the option pricing down to the range of 180,000-200,000 yuan, to know that this is an imported Italian SUV Ah, if the final pricing is really so sincere, I believe that its market competitiveness in the future is still good.
(Some of the pictures come from the Internet)
Today's topic
How much do you think Tonale is selling for?
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