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The Alfa Romeo Tonale Concept 'Edizione Bambini' Flaunts Built-In Baby Changing Unit

A few years ago, I wasn’t exactly interested in anything but rear legroom and ISOFIX anchors in a family-oriented vehicle. But after my sister had two kids, this uncle realized that a family car needs more than that.
Alfa Romeo Tonale "Edizione Bambini" concept 27 photos
Photo: Alfa Romeo/edited
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Enter the so-called Edizione Bambini, a Tonale-based concept which boasts the kind of things a parent needs to make traveling with children that bit easier. As the headline implies, the highlight feature is a slide-out baby changing unit integrated into the parcel shelf. It further sweetens the deal with an easy-to-clean changing mat.

The power tailgate reveals a 500-liter trunk. Over in the United States where Alfa Romeo’s new crossover is available solely in the form of a PHEV, the Italian utility vehicle offers 22.9 cubic feet behind the second row.

Pictured in UK specification, hence the steering wheel’s location and yellow license plate out back, the family-oriented concept is also equipped with seat-mounted tidies which integrate drink, bento box, and pen holders. A couple of tablets keep the kids occupied on longer journeys. Considering that kids like to kick the back of the front seats, protective panels are featured as well.

A middle-seat leather folder, a trash bin secured to the footwell behind the center console, a toy tidy, a car vacuum powered by the car’s 12-volt sockets, and a three-box trunk organizer pretty much sum up the upgrades over the standard Tonale. Unfortunately for stylish parents in the market for a crossover, Alfa Romeo doesn’t intend to adapt this concept for production.

Strangely described as a mid-size SUV in the attached press release even though it’s a compact at best due to its relation to the Jeep Compass, the Italian crossover is available from £38,595 in the United Kingdom as a 48-volt hybrid. That’s $47,560 at current exchange rates.

Somewhat expensive for its footprint and for the standard FWD setup, the most basic of configurations available in the United Kingdom is rocking a dual-clutch transmission with seven forward ratios. Good for 160 ps (158 horsepower) and 240 Nm ( pound-feet) on full song, this lump is rated at 47.1 miles per gallon (39.2 in the U.S.) and 135 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer.

As opposed to the 1.5-liter GSE Firefly turbocharged four-cylinder lump in the 48-volt hybrid Tonale, the plug-in hybrid is equipped with a 1.3-liter unit from the same engine family and with the same number of cylinders. Equipped with a torque-converter automatic transmission and e-AWD, the plug-in hybrid Tonale promises a scarcely believable 1.3 liters per 100 kilometers, which is 217.3 mpg UK or nearly 181 US.

Don’t be fooled by the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure numbers because the WLTP is pretty flawed, even more so than the EPA’s testing protocol. The plug-in hybrid Tonale cranks out 280 ps (276 horsepower) on full song, and on electric power alone, it can travel up to 40.4 miles (65 kilometers).

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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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