What the future of Alpine means for performance car enthusiasts

Alpine is a company in transition. What was once a minor offshoot of the Renault empire based on the bleak northern coast of France has suddenly been shunted into the limelight. Rebranding Renault’s F1 team beneath the Alpine banner has boosted brand awareness to the tune of 433 million race viewers a week, but now it’s Renault’s job to turn that recognition into products that people will actually buy.

Thus far that has been a problem. The A110, for all its critical acclaim, has been a poor seller. Here in Australia, year to date sales stand at a single car, sold through its sole dealer in Melbourne. Only 35 cars found owners in 2019 and a mere seven units were registered last year. Even in stronger markets, such as France and the UK, sales have tailed off drastically.

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Alpine has made no secret that the A110 is the last of its line and that the business is looking to pivot rapidly to a full-EV product range. A collaboration with Lotus pairs the two prime exponents of lightweight agility in the sports car market and promises something quite special. The timing ties up too, with Lotus’ new Emira also being its last solus-ICE powered vehicle.

Lotus and Alpine’s memorandum of understanding first creation will sprout from the “E-Sports” electric platform that is set to be flexible and modular. It’ll underpin EV performance cars from Lotus and Alpine, but will also be made available to other car manufacturers. Lotus is insisting that even with a weighty battery pack on board, it has to be an authentic Lotus. Hethel has encouraging form in that regard, the Evija (below) weighing much the same as a modern 911 Turbo.

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“The E-Sports architecture will be flexible and modular, and will generate an exciting new sports car icon for the Lotus brand, with contemporary styling, class-leading ride and handling, explosive performance and that unmistakable Lotus character – a pure dynamic experience that is ‘For The Drivers’,” Matt Windle, Managing Director of Lotus Cars, says.

“I have challenged our teams to target the same weight as our latest combustion engine sports cars.”

The Alpine “Business Unit”, announced in January, merges Alpine, Renault Sport and Renault’s motorsport operations into one entity. The plan for the near future not only includes the Alpine-Lotus collaboration for a sports EV, but also an electric hot hatch and a battery-powered crossover.

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Laurent Rossi, Alpine’s CEO, said: “As part of the reorganisation of the Renault Group by brand, it is essential that the various entities that make up the Business Unit bear the Alpine name and embody the values and ambitions of the brand. Alpine aims to be a premium sports brand at the forefront of innovation and technology. Alpine Cars with its expertise and experience in sports vehicles is a master card in achieving our goals.”

In the nearer term, Renault Sport is dead, and performance Renaults will carry the Alpine badge instead.

Things will remain the same operationally too, with the 300-strong Renault Sport team remaining at its Les Ulis headquarters near Paris.

It’s perhaps ironic that Alpine built the first Renault Sport model, the 1996 Renault Sport Spider, and a quarter of a century later, the responsibility has been handed back.

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