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  • In 2024, Alfa Romeo built 82,000 examples of the Tonale and recently broke the 100,000-unit mark.
  • It has managed to shift a mere 5,000 in Europe in Q1 2025, though, which is definitely a sharp drop.
  • Currently, the Junior outsells the Tonale, but Alfa is planning another revamp at the end of the year.

Alfa Romeo has been fighting an uphill battle to reclaim its old swagger, and the Tonale was supposed to be the crossover that finally turned the tide. Yet, here we are, watching the new Junior do all the heavy lifting in Europe while the Tonale tries to figure out where it fits in.

Granted, total sales rose by a considerable (and certainly very welcome) 20 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to 2024. Surely the Tonale, which recently broke the 100,000-unit mark, played a big role in that, yes?

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Well, not really. In fact, only 5,000 models were built in Q1 2025. By comparison, Alfa built 82,000 units in total last year compared to just 36,000 in 2023, so the future must have been looked bright.

How did the Tonale drop when, only a few months ago, it was doing just fine? We’ll get to that in a moment. For the time being, Alfa Romeo has no option but to give its compact crossover a big jolt that will, hopefully, bring it back on track.

There’s a Facelift Coming

The Tonale, which was launched in 2022 and received a mild update for the 2025 model year, will receive yet another facelift at the end of the year. Director of Alfa Romeo France, Alain Descat, was adamant about that in an interview with Journal Auto.

“We have to revive the Tonale, because it is the pivot of the range”, he said. “It will also be revamped at the end of the year. Today, the Tonale is suffering because we were doing a lot of PHEV, a motor that is now declining for tax reasons. The priority is to rebuild the brand and sustain sales beyond Junior alone.”

Junior Steals the Spotlight

So the answer is simple, and, as it happens, sometimes it is one of your siblings that outshines you. In the Tonale’s case, that family member is the Junior.

The Tonale was supposed to be the chosen one, Alfa’s Neo in the industry’s Matrix that would guide its resurrection. It has all the right ingredients. Its design makes it instantly recognizable as an Alfa Romeo, but keeping up with the times; you know, slim LED lights, all the latest safety and infotainment tech and all that.

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Second, it’s an SUV. Well, technically a crossover, as it wouldn’t be wise to do any serious off-roading with it, but the two terms mean more or less the same in consumers’ minds. And SUVs/crossovers are the bodystyle to have right now.

However, while the Tonale sales have dropped sharply in Q1, the younger Junior (see what I did there?) EV is following the opposite trajectory. According to Italpassion, it accounts for 51 percent of total Alfa registrations in Italy, 68 percent in France, 59 percent in Germany, and 64 percent in Spain. If that’s not a big hit for a brand new model, I don’t know what is.

What About North America?

Ah, but it’s too small for the US, you’ll say. Surely Stellantis won’t dare bring that one here; Americans like their cars bigger than the rest of the world, and what in Europe is considered a mid-size model, in the States, it’s a compact, and so on and so forth. Still, the group seems to be considering that option, though nothing’s official yet and it may never happen.

For the time being, Alfa Romeo is betting that, come 2026, the facelifted Tonale will bounce back stronger than ever, ready to fulfill its makers’ plans. Or, who knows, if it decides it could replicate the Junior’s success in Europe, it may also bring the Junior Stateside. But that’s a very big “if”…