Renaulution secures Alpine’s future: goodbye Renault Sport, hello 100% electric

The Alpine A110 marked the French sports-car maker’s return to the spotlight… and what a comeback it was - a welcome shake-up in which compact proportions and low weight mattered more than outright power.

It looked like the opening chapter of a promising new era for Alpine, yet it did not take long for questions to arise about the brand’s longer-term prospects. Renault, its parent company, was going through a difficult period and launched an extensive cost-cutting programme; then the pandemic, which continues to affect the world, undermined sales expectations for the new model and forced a major rethink of future plans.

However, yesterday’s unveiling of Renaulution - the new recovery plan and long-term strategy for the entire Renault Group - not only safeguarded Alpine’s future, it also made clear that the brand will play a bigger role within the group than it has to date.

Goodbye, Renault Sport

Alpine will become one of the four newly announced business units - alongside Renault, Dacia-Lada and Mobilize - effectively bringing together Alpine Cars, Renault Sport Cars and Renault Sport Racing (the motorsport division) into a single organisation. In addition, Renault’s presence in Formula 1 will be carried under the Alpine name from this year.

The result should be a stronger Alpine with far greater global visibility, as stated in the announcement: “an entity that combines the unique know-how of Renault Sport Cars and Renault Sport Racing engineering, the Dieppe factory, Formula 1 media exposure and the Alpine brand heritage”.

Alpine goes 100% electric

Even though Formula 1 will not become 100% electric in the decade now beginning - with the focus remaining on hybridisation and the future use of biofuels - and even though the championship will have “a central role in the brand’s sporting strategy”, Alpine’s future road cars will be electric-only - including the successor to the Alpine A110…

The electric successor to the Alpine A110

That Alpine A110 replacement is still several years away. No timetable or specifications have been shared, but the message is unambiguous: when it arrives, it will be purely electric. To that end, Alpine has joined forces with the British firm Lotus to develop a new 100% electric sports car (as well as exploring other potential areas of collaboration). For now, Alpine and Lotus are working on a feasibility study covering engineering and design.

Given both brands’ emphasis on lightness, it will be fascinating to see how that philosophy translates once heavy electric technology becomes part of the equation.

Two more 100% electric Alpine models: hot hatch and crossover

The news does not stop with a clean-sheet sports car. Two additional Alpine models were announced for the coming years: an (unexpected) hot hatch and a (long-trailed) crossover - and, naturally, both will be 100% electric. Each will draw on synergies within the Renault Group and the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, not only to optimise costs but also to meet the brand’s profitability target in 2025 (which includes investment in motorsport).

Platforms, segments and what we know so far

Starting with the future electric hot hatch, it will sit in the B-segment and use the Alliance’s CMF-B EV platform. Its size should be broadly similar to what we see in the Zoe or the Clio, yet the new Alpine hot hatch is not expected to be a more performance-focused version of those cars - it should be something distinct.

The Alpine-branded electric crossover, which has been the subject of rumours and announcements for many years, now appears closer than ever. It will be based on the new CMF-EV platform already seen in the Mégane eVision concept and in the Ariya, Nissan’s new electric SUV. As with the other two models, no specifications or potential launch date have been provided.

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