Alfa Romeo Tonale Concept Takes Concept Car Design Award:

Auto & Design magazine has announced its winners for the best “Car Design Award” for three different categories for 2019. The categories include, “Production Cars”, “Concept Cars”, and “Brand Design Language”. This year, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) took home the win in the Concept Cars category with the popular Alfa Romeo Tonale Concept that made its debut at this year’s Geneva International Motor Show. 

Klaus Busse, Head of FCA Design EMEA, stated: “We are honored to receive this coveted award for the design of the Tonale which, like every Alfa Romeo, is inspired by the perfect combination of heritage, speed, and beauty. In fact, it incorporates all the distinguishing features of quintessential Italian style and unique Alfa Romeo elements: an impeccable sense of proportions, simplicity, and superior surface quality finish, for an innovative design that is faithful to a universally appreciated tradition.”

The Alfa Romeo Tonale embodies the Alfa Romeo’s trademark language of beauty, in a compact SUV form. The Tonale Concept was designed for urban use featuring a sporty personality with its distinctive features and Italian styling pointing towards the future of the Alfa Romeo design language.

In keeping with the Alfa Romeo manifesto, every detail is designed around the driver, with driving pleasure delivered through ergonomics, use of premium materials and, above all, unrivaled dynamic handling. Furthermore, the Tonale concept car is the Alfa Romeo take on electrification. State-of-the-art technology and proverbial driving dynamics meet to grasp new opportunities and provide tangible answers to fresh challenges.

The interior design of the Tonale Concept draws its inspiration from Alfa Romeo’s rich racing history. The cockpit of Tonale is boldly designed around driver but also to accommodate passengers in comfort. The style is a balance of harmony and tension conveying the feeling that the entire car is about to pounce. The strong emotions transmitted by the interiors of Tonale are amplified by the contrast of premium materials, such as cool solidity of aluminum that meets the warm softness of leather and Alcantara. 

We predict that the Tonale will make it into production by the 2022 model year. During last year’s Captial Markets Day event, FCA presented a future vehicle lineup for the Alfa Romeo brand that included a new C-Segment SUV that would feature a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) variant. Sounds a lot like a production version of the Tonale Concept to us.