THE Alpine A110 it meant the return of the French sports car brand to the limelight… and what a return(!) — a refreshing rock in the pond where the compact dimensions and low weight had more prominence than pure power.
It seemed to be the beginning of a beautiful story, a new opportunity for Alpine, but it didn't take long to question the brand's survival in the future. Not only was the mother house (Renault) going through difficulties — and began a profound cost-cutting program — but the pandemic that still affects the planet so much destroyed commercial expectations for the new model, forcing a review deep into future plans.
But yesterday, with the presentation of the Renaulution — the new recovery and strategic plan for the future of the entire Renault Group — the future of Alpine is not only assured, its importance within the group will be greater than until now.
Alpine colors for your A521 Formula 1 car
Goodbye Renault Sport
Alpine will become one of the four business units announced — the others will be Renault, Dacia-Lada and Mobilize — meaning the “merger” of Alpine Cars, Renault Sport Cars and Renault Sport Racing (competition division ) in a single entity. In addition, the presence of Renault in Formula 1 will be made by the Alpine brand this year.
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We will thus have a stronger Alpine with greater media exposure on the global stage, as stated in a statement: “an entity that combines the unique engineering know-how of Renault Sport Cars and Renault Sport Racing, the Dieppe plant, the Formula 1 media exposure and the heritage of the Alpine brand”.
Laurent Rossi, General Director of Alpine“The new Alpine entity combines three brands with distinct assets and areas of excellence, in favor of a single, autonomous company. The ‘know-how’ of our Dieppe plant, and the engineering excellence of our F1 and Renault Sport teams, will shine with our 100% electrical and technological range, thus anchoring the ‘Alpine’ name in the future. We will be on the tracks and on the roads, authentically, with the highest technology and we will be disruptive and passionate.”
Alpine 100% electric
Even taking into account that Formula 1 will not become 100% electric during the decade that has just begun — the focus continues to be on hybridization and the future use of biofuels — and that the discipline will have “a central role in brand sports strategy”, Alpine's future road models will be electric only — even the successor to the Alpine A110 will be electric…
The successor to the Alpine A110 is still a few years away — nothing has been announced in terms of timing or specs — but when it does come it will be all electric. In this sense, the French company Alpine joined forces with the British Lotus to develop a new 100% electric sports car (among other possible areas of cooperation). For now, Alpine and Lotus are preparing a feasibility study for the engineering and design areas.
Considering the two brands' focus on the lightness of their proposals, it will be interesting to see how this translates into the adoption of heavy electrical technology.
The novelties are not limited to a new “from scratch” sports car. Two more new Alpines have been announced for the next few years: an (unexpected) hot hatch and a (announced) crossover — naturally, both 100% electric. Both will take advantage of the potential of synergies within the Renault Group and with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, not only to optimize costs, but also to reach the brand's profitability target in 2025 (which includes investment in competition).
Starting with the future electric hot hatch, it will be positioned in the B segment, based on Aliança's CMF-B EV platform. Its dimensions shouldn't be far from those we see on the Zoe or the Clio, but the new Alpine hot hatch shouldn't be a sportier version of these models, but something different.
The Alpine-branded electric crossover, which has been rumored and advertised for many years, now appears to be closer than ever. It will build on the new CMF-EV platform we saw in the Mégane eVision concept and in Ariya, Nissan's new electric SUV. As with the other two models announced, no specs or a possible release date have yet been advanced.