Renault advances towards full electrification of Alpine
The French sports brand already has three electric models in its product portfolio.
When Luca de Meo accepted the offer to lead the Renault Group in 2020, he was very clear about the move to Alpine, the brand's high-performance subsidiary, with an almost legendary service history with the original A110. Luca de Meo opted to repeat the same move he had made with Abarth when he worked at the Fiat Group and with Cupra when he was the head of Seat: making the high-performance subsidiary independent, differentiating its product, and giving it superior added value that justifies the final price increase and the increased commercial margin for each unit sold.
The first step was the resurrection of the legendary A110, now in a modern format and maintaining respect for its original aesthetics, a commitment to dynamism and agility behind the wheel. The resulting product was excellent, clearly convincing both critics and fans, but Luca de Meo's roadmap was much more ambitious than settling for the success of a single model. In fact, the decision to name Renault's Formula 1 team Alpine (abandoning the name of a legendary team with several world championships) made clear Alpine's positioning within the group.
Alpine couldn't be a brand associated with a single model, so many millions of euros were invested in developing two new models called the A290 and A390, which, unlike the first model, are fully electric. The A290 is the sporty, turbocharged version of the Renault R5, a small sports car measuring less than four meters long and producing 220 hp, with a retail price of around 38,000 euros (excluding discounts and institutional aid).
The A390, for its part, is a family-friendly electric SUV thanks to its 4.6 meters long and 1.53 meters high, which allow it to have a trunk capacity of 532 liters, with a sales price starting at around 59,000 euros. This zero-emission sports SUV has two power and equipment levels called the A390 GT and A390 GTS, with 400 and 470 hp of power respectively and ranges of over 520 kilometers.
Electric A110
Alpine's next step is to develop a fully electric A110, maintaining its focus on agility and lightness. Luca de Meo himself acknowledged in an interview with AutoExpress that "the first electric cars have been like washing machines: somewhat ugly and lacking in excitement," a reality he intends to reverse with the future electric A110. In fact, the Renault group has created a new platform specifically for sporty and powerful models, debuting with the new A110, "an irrational choice," as Luca de Meo himself acknowledged.
The Italian's goal is "to make an electric car lighter than a combustion engine" based on the model's electronic architecture by positioning the electric motors integrated into the wheels, which allows the car's center of gravity to be lowered and weight to be kept under control. The future electric A110 will have a version with two electric motors (one on each rear wheel) and an all-wheel drive version that will maintain the two rear motors of the entry-level version, but introducing a third motor that will power the front axle, smaller and lighter than the rear ones.
The main problem for the future A110 will be range, since using high-capacity batteries like the A390's, with up to 89 kWh, would allow for ranges of more than 550 or 600 kilometers but would add weight to a unit that should never exceed one and a half tons. Only time will tell if the future electric A110 can match or improve the performance and feel of the current gasoline model, a car that has been able to consolidate, once again, Luca de Meo's commitment and commercial vision.
