Alpine says the DNA of the Alpine A110 will be preserved in its new electric sports car, which is tipped to be released in 2026.
The next-generation Alpine A110 will continue to play a crucial role in the French performance brand’s lineup, with the French car maker readying an electric variant.
The two-seat coupe will make the switch to an electric powertrain for its third generation, lining it up as a rival to similarly conceived sports cars from Lotus, Porsche and Toyota.
By the time the new A110 arrives, most likely in 2026, Alpine’s line-up will also include an electric crossover and an electric hot hatchback.
While those more volume-friendly models will be crucial to Alpine increasing its global footprint, company CEO Laurent Rossi is adamant that the A110 will continue to play a core role as a halo car and as an embodiment of the brand’s sporting credentials.
“Alpine is going to be sports cars, no matter what. That’s the central value proposition,” said Rossi. “It’s ‘born from racing, made by racers for racers at heart’. You need to have at least one sports car to justify that, otherwise it’s a false claim. There will always be at least one sports car, and that’s like an undertone.”
Alpine has so far said little about what to expect of the reinvented A110. Rossi did suggest, however, that it could be a near-bespoke proposition, far removed technically from the Renault-based Alpine GT X-Over crossover and Alpine 5 hot hatchback alongside which it will be sold.
“We hope to preserve the A110 DNA, and it might be quite different from the rest of the cars, despite platform-sharing,” said Rossi. “There’s nothing more similar than two electric cars nowadays: same platforms, same electric power, distributed to all wheels if you’re lucky, and it’s pretty much a matter of fine-tuning the output of the motors.
“But you will still retain advantages in terms of chassis dynamics and agility if you use aluminium versus steel. Our ambition is to keep the characteristics and the DNA of the A110 intact and differentiated from others as a competitive advantage.”
The next A110 is in line to share elements of its chassis with the upcoming Lotus Type 135 electric sports car.
Talks between the two firms are centred on “the characteristics of the cars that we want to produce and the commonality of the solutions that we will apply to produce those cars”, revealed Rossi.
“Lotus and us share the same preoccupation, which is trying to make light, agile sports cars while obviously adding weight and electrifying,” he explained. “So it’s only normal that we think about those challenges together, at least upstream. We will see if we partner up, but obviously we share the same problems and the same opportunities.”
Rossi added that a final decision on a Dieppe-Hethel partnership will need to be made in around six months’ time, in line with the two firms’ planned launch timelines for their respective sports EVs.
“By the end of this year, we need to know which platform and technological solutions we will use to produce our cars and so will they,” he said. “So we will decide whether or not the path forward is together.”
Whatever shape it ultimately takes, the next-generation A110 (and its stablemates) will remain true to the purity and driver appeal established by the current car
Rossi said: “You won’t find in an Alpine necessarily the latest and greatest autonomous features, automatic parking etc. But you will always have sporty sensations and sporty technology, even in the SUV.”
Felix Page