Alpine unveils A290 Beta - sports hatchback based on the new Renault 5

10 May 2023

Alpine unveiled its latest creation together with its ambitious goals - to become a mainstream automaker. The Alpine A290 Beta is just the first of three concept vehicles that the company wants to unveil in the not-so-distant future that will be part of Alpine’s Dream Garage.

Alpine is embracing the EV era with style and the new A290 Beta is a perfect sign of things to come, even better than the A110 E-ternite that the company unveiled last year. First of all - it is based on the all-new Renault 5 and some of the Alpine’s components will find their way into the Renault 5 Turbo. Then there’s the fact that A290 Beta will go on sale next year - you read that right, 2024 will see this hot electric hatch on the road.

Well, not exactly this one but one looking just like it. While the exterior will make it to production, the interior with a central driver’s seat has no chance. Alpine already confirmed this has been done only for show, the car we see here is built on an FIA-approved chassis while the production car will be based on the road-going Renault 5 and its CMF-BEV platform.

While the Beta version of A290 has two electric motors on the front axle for extra poke, the production version will come with two power options. Customers will be able to choose between the 215 hp motor from Renault Megane E-Tech or the newly developed powertrain with 268 hp. Both versions will use the same battery with an expected capacity of at least 52 kWh which should be sufficient for a 240-mile road trip.

The standard chassis will get upgrades from Alpine for improved handling, there are hydraulic bump stops, the torque vectoring of the standard motor has been extensively tweaked and the car apparently feels like it has a mechanical differential up front, making acceleration and braking much more predictable.

The A290 will handle like it’s glued to the road, the car is only 4.05 meters long but it is 1.85 meters wide. With all four wheels pushed far out to the corners, the car will be stable and agile, resembling an oversized go-kart.

Of course, this is going to be a production vehicle so things like one-pedal driving are expected to make it to production to make city driving as easy as possible. While the roof-mounted switches in the Beta version look amazing, they will have to make way for more traditional controls. The racing-inspired steering wheel won’t be making its way to production either, unfortunately.

The A290 Beta is just a preview of the production car and it is exciting to see Alpine going mainstream. It follows what Cupra did, what AMG has done, and what Brabus and Abarth are doing now as well. Look at Polestar - it started as a Volvo-approved tuner all those years ago. Alpine certainly has the history and brand recognition and if its cars are as good as they look it won’t have problems selling them to the public.

When can we expect to see the A290 on the road then? Alpine is promising a launch in 2024 which coincides with the Renault 5 going on sale. The A290 will become available in Europe and in Japa out of all places because Alpine has a huge following in the land of the rising sun. As for prices - it won’t be cheap. Purely because of the amount of modification that the standard Renault 5 will need to become A290, we should expect it to be pricier than Abarth 500e - that’s well north of €40,000.

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