The Alfa Romeo Tonale is similar to the Dodge Hornet, but costs about $8,000 more. The retro teledial wheels are a $2,000 extra.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
The first decade or so of the automobile’s new electric era hasn’t been kind to nostalgia acts. I’m talking about the car companies who love to play up their “heritage,” the brands with cabinets overflowing with trophies from Formula 1, Daytona and Le Mans, and brands whose cars can be found in the permanent collections of prestigious art galleries. These are the carmakers that gearheads view through rose-tinted goggles, but in the shift to electric power, these brands are facing an identity crisis.
Whether it’s because of the high cost of EV development and the need to share parts across multiple brands, the interchangeability of electric motors or the timid, toe-dipping way so many enthusiast-brands are going electric, the results thus far haven’t been pretty.
Take the new Alfa Romeo Tonale, for example. This tiny, Italian-made SUV is the brand’s first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and its first electrified car of any sort through 114 years in the business. And, well, it’s fine.
My favourite part is the lovely green paint, a $2,000 option that gives it a shimmering, Wizard-of-Oz vibe. The colour is called Verde Fangio metallic in an apparent attempt to tap into the cachet of five-time Formula 1 world champ Juan Manuel Fangio. My other favourite feature of the Tonale is those retro teledial wheels, also a $2,000 option, which are just perfection.
The list of things that I’m not so fond of is, sadly, longer. The 1.3-litre engine sounds agricultural as the revs build, which is very un-Alfa. (The automaker’s larger Stelvio Quadrifoglio SUV has three-quarters of a Ferrari V8 under its hood and sounds almost as sweet as the cars from Maranello.) The Tonale’s brake pedal has the same vague feel that plagued many early hybrids, and the PHEV powertrain — while practical — isn’t the most refined. The clunky gearbox doesn’t help.
The top-spec Veloce model I drove cost nearly $73,000 before the $5,000 federal rebate. It’s expensive but doesn’t deliver the sort of bravura performance that made Alfa Romeo so beloved. Admittedly, that’s a tall order for a heavy subcompact SUV.
More damning is the fact that this Alfa Romeo is also available as an almost identical Dodge. Alfa really got mugged by Stellantis on this one. The details may never come to light, but judging by the crime scene, it looks as if the parent company robbed Alfa of its new subcompact SUV, slapped a different grille on it, stripped out some of the features and put it on sale as the Dodge Hornet for around $8,000 less than the Alfa.
Industry-wide, the Tonale is a symptom of a larger issue: It is proving difficult for enthusiast-favourite car brands whose value is tied to things like gas-guzzling engines, manual gearboxes and frisky handling to deliver compelling electric products.
Take away the Ferrari engine from Alfa’s Giulia Quadrifoglio and replace it with an electric motor out of the Stellantis parts bin and you’ve taken away much of its romance, not to mention value. But that’s exactly what will happen starting next year, when the all-electric replacements for the current Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV are due. They’ll be weighed down by hundreds of kilograms of batteries, lacking any kind of combustion-engine soundtrack, and be built on the shared STLA Large platform that will underpin Dodge’s electric muscle car as well as products from Chrysler, Jeep and Maserati. Anyone who likes cars will be rooting for Alfa Romeo; I desperately want the electric Giulia and Stelvio to be spectacular, but I’m worried.
The interior of the Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce. The SUV is the brand’s first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and its first electrified car through 114 years in the business.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
Other high-performance nostalgia brands haven’t fared any better when it comes to EVs. Ferrari itself has simply pushed off the problem, delaying full electrification after getting a carve out in EU emissions regulations that exempt small manufacturers from pre-2035 targets. Unofficially, it’s called the “Ferrari clause,” and it allows the company to hang on to its legendary V12 engines a little longer.
Plug-in hybrid supercars, namely the McLaren Artura and now-discontinued Acura NSX, arrived to lukewarm receptions from many car critics — including this one.
When Mercedes-AMG replaced its twin-turbo V8 with a (vastly more powerful) four-cylinder plug-in hybrid in the fan-favourite C63 sedan, the reaction among the online commentariat was dire. A Car and Driver magazine story speculated that AMG would bring back its V8, based on opinions from two independent sources. AMG’s boss had to come out and deny those rumours. Meanwhile, the brand’s first wave of all-electric models isn’t quite living up to the AMG fantasy.
There are exceptions. It is difficult, but not impossible, for enthusiast-favourite brands to deliver compelling electric products.
Porsche, for example, somehow made the all-electric Taycan feel genuinely like a Porsche; something in the way it steers is eerily reminiscent of the brand’s great gas-burning sports cars.
The Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce has a 1.3-litre engine sounds agricultural as the revs build, which is very un-Alfa.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
Same goes for BMW’s all-electric i4; it looks ugly but who cares when it handles like BMW’s great combustion-engine sports sedans.
Hyundai and Kia have been so successful with their EVs — in some small part, I think — because they’re unburdened by nostalgia and the expectations that come with it. For them, the electric era is a blank slate and they’ve been filling it with unexpected, original and delightfully designed products.
There’s no doubt the future will bring mind-boggling electric performance cars that’ll please all but the most hopelessly backward-looking enthusiasts. But it will be harder to recreate the appeal of an old-school Alfa or Ferrari or AMG in the electric era than it is to design an attractive, sporty EV from a blank slate. The weight of expectation is a blessing and curse in the car world.
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Matt Bubbers