ALFA CHANCE

The historic Italian brand yearns to muscle in on the lucrative premium plug-in hybrid family SUV market, but you can bet that Land Rover won't make things easy for it

A sales rep interviewed for the insightful 1993 BBC documentary From A to B: Tales of Modern Motoring reckoned that the badge on his fuel-injected Vauxhall Cavalier’s bootlid denoted that he was important. Today, he would find the T’ in BIK’ of much greater consequence, because benefit-in-kind tax holds the key to determining exactly what kind of machine a company car driver can afford to put on their drive.

Still, that group has never had it so good, and it’s largely thanks to plug-in hybrid PHEV technology. Unlike regular hybrids, PHEVs can make entire trips on electric power alone, reducing emissions and, with it, BIK tax. The new Alfa Romeo Tonale and latest Range Rover Evoque both embrace this tech, bringing premium swagger without the high tax liability.

Here, the upstart Tonale gets off to a flying start over its older rival; it has a longer official electric range and sits in a lower tax band, plus it can be had in high-spec Veloce form for the price of an entry-level R-Dynamic S PHEV Evoque.

The Evoque, however, is a former What Car? Family SUV of the Year, with quiet cruising manners, a luxurious interior and a plush ride among its fortes. So, can it see off the newcomer?

DRIVING

Performance, ride, handling, refinement

It's important to know how far a PHEV will go on a full charge; you might not bother plugging it in at all if the battery range is disappointingly short. On a chilly spring morning with the temperature hovering around 10-12deg C, the Tonale's slightly larger battery allowed it to cover 28.2 miles on battery power alone, versus 25.3 miles from the Evoque. That was on a test route that included a mixture of simulated urban, rural road and motorway driving, so you can expect a longer range if you're mainly trundling around town, or less if you spend a lot of time on the motorway.