What are the running costs?

According to official WLTP fuel economy figures, the mild-hybrid Tonale will achieve close to 50mpg, and that might be the case in slower-speed driving, but real-world driving will see most drivers get much nearer 40mpg and more likely in the high-30s.

The PHEV looks more impressive on paper, with an official figure of up to 217mpg, but that will require you to keep the battery pack charged up, otherwise you’ll be dragging around a heavy battery pack that doesn’t add anything. In that situation, our 36mpg in longer-distance runs will probably reflect what the average driver is likely to get out of it without charging it up on a daily basis.

You don’t need to plug the mild hybrid Tonale into the mains. It harvests the energy required to drive the motor whenever the car is slowing down in a similar manner to more conventional ‘self-charging’ hybrids like the Toyota Yaris Cross.

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The plug-in hybrid Tonale’s battery pack takes just 2.5 hours to charge from empty using the car’s onboard 7.4kW charger. With a full charge, Alfa Romeo says the PHEV can travel 43 miles on electric power alone, but we found that 35 miles is a more realistic target in real-world testing.

View detailed MPG and CO2 figures on the Alfa Romeo Tonale specs pages

Servicing and warranty

Alfa Romeo offers a number of service plans, depending what you want to spend on it up-front. The most comprehensive is what Alfa Romeo calls Easy Care, which covers all servicing and can be paid for when you buy the car or factor it into your monthly payments. Service Care is a similar package designed for Alfa Romeos older than a year, while Oil Care allows you to buy oil and filter services in advance.

Service plans are transferable between owners as long as the schedule is adhered to via Alfa Romeo dealers. You do get a three-year, unlimited mileage warranty which is now rather off-the pace compared with the five years offered by Hyundai, the seven years you get with a Kia or an MG, and the 10 years of support Toyota’s Relax programme brings you.

Reliability

• Alfa reliability record isn’t good, but is improving
• Shared technology with other Fiat-based vehicles
• New model, new tech, we’ll keep an eye on things

The Tonale is new to the UK market, so it’s too soon to call it on reliability, but Alfa Romeo is working hard to improve the negative situation its reputation brings with it. Some of its hardware is shared with other Fiat and Jeep models, which are well established, but the hybrid systems are all new.

So, we’ll keep a watching brief.