France’s Renault gave an update on its electric-vehicle plans during an online presentation held on Wednesday, and confirmed during the presentation were three EVs for its Alpine performance brand.
Silhouettes for each of the three electric Alpines were briefly shown, along with confirmation that the first will arrive in 2024. The remaining two are expected by the end of 2025.
The silhouettes point to the EVs consisting of a fastback sedan or hatchback, a hot hatch, and a sports car.
We know the sports car will be based on a new E-Sports platform being developed by Lotus for its own electric sports car. Lotus is also open to licensing the platform to other automakers.
3 Alpine electric cars teased during presentation on June 30, 2021
Meanwhile, the hot hatch looks like it could be related to a production version of the Renault 5 Prototype unveiled in January. Some readers will recall that the original Renault 5, sold briefly in the United States as the Le Car, had a hot Alpine version, so there’s a previous connection there. The platform in this case would be the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance’s CMF-EV, which we’ll see shortly in the 2020 Nissan Ariya crossover.
The fastback model is hard to pin but we could be looking at a potential rival to the Audi E-Tron GT or Porsche Taycan.
Alpine’s sole model at present is the A110, a lightweight, mid-engine sports car that only sells about 5,000 units annually. However, the brand in Jan. said it will transition to a pure EV brand in an effort to become the technology spearhead for Renault.
The move toward EVs will potentially enable Alpine to attract customers in China, where Renault plans to stop selling vehicles equipped with internal-combustion engines. Unfortunately, it isn’t likely to help the case for a U.S. launch, so don’t expect to see Alpine introduced here anytime soon.
