Alpine sets sights on Porsche with new A110

SCOOP As French brand celebrates 70th birthday, bosses reveal how iconic coupé will return in all-electric form

- Phil McNamara

READY for the first two-seat, electric coupé with the “soul” of French racing brand Alpine? It’s coming up fast and promises to be something special to rival Porsche’s new Cayman and Boxster EVs (p15), Alpine executives told Auto Express.

Alpine's boss Philippe Krief and Renault Group's irrepressible leader Luca de Meo talked in depth about the replacement for the A110 coupé, revealing several technical headlines.

The electric coupé will ride on a dedicated sports car platform, has a target weight of 1,450kg (close to the Cayman GT4 RS's), should travel more than 350 miles on a charge, and packs two in-wheel motors that generate “more than enough power - I can guarantee [it],” vows ex-Ferrari director of engineering Krief.

The A110 will be the cornerstone of Renault Group's attempt to take Alpine's track pedigree and turn the brand into a seven-model premium car maker at the cutting edge of new technology. Critical to that plan is the success of the brand's new sporty electric SUV - the A390 - to generate revenue to invest in other projects.

De Meo's vision is to create France's answer to Porsche. “[The A110] is our icon, [our] Porsche 911,” he says.

Although the A390 rides on an overhauled version of Renault Group's AmpR-Medium architecture, the coupé will be the first model on the Alpine Performance Platform (APP), and is set to be unveiled at the Paris motor show in October 2026.

“We decided to invest in a very modular sports car platform that will underpin the next-generation A110,” explains de Meo. “The APP is the core of [Alpine]. The priority is to take that platform and develop three or four models, then we'll see what happens.”

De Meo told us that APP is made of extruded aluminium sections. It will be manufactured in the Dieppe factory in France, where workers are experienced in crafting the lightweight alloy.