Alpin A390

IF you're looking at the car in these pictures and struggling to get a sense of what an Alpine A390 is, you're not the only one. The A390 GTS is very much an 'Alpine' in terms of its design, but this is an all-electric 4.6-metre-long crossover packing a high-performance powertrain underneath a body that's somewhere between an SUV, a coupé, and a four-door fastback.

- Jordan Katsianis [e-mail]

The car’s technical starting point doesn’t make good reading for fans of the high-performance French brand, either. Unlike the A110 sports car, which features a bespoke all-aluminium structure and platform, the A390 shares more with the Renault Scenic and Nissan Ariya. But before we write this car off as anything more than a sheep in wolf's clothing, let us consider that Alpine has a history of taking a relatively mundane Renault platform and making it a more interesting proposition - just look at what it did with the A290 supermini.

The efforts Alpine has gone to with its A390 are clear when you read its specification. Its electric motors are bespoke, and have been developed in-house to give the A390 the only tri-motor layout in any car costing less than £100,000. Its 89kWh battery is also new, unique to this model, and about the right size for a car of this class. For reference, it sits just above models like the Audi Q4 e-tron, and below the Porsche Macan Electric.

The A390 isn't a big car, though. It doesn't feel as chunky as other premium electric SUVs, and while the 21-inch wheels and high floor shout “electric SUV”, the body doesn't. Its silhouette is cab-forward, with a short bonnet and a high point on the roof just behind the driver's head. By design or not, this is a trait found in the mid-engined A110; the two have an aesthetic baseline that is aligned, if not identical.

Alpine's designers have given the A390’s nose some concept-car-like lighting treatments, with a complex arrangement of four small daytime running lights that reference the quad lamps of the A110. These are joined by a lightbar that stretches between them, and there's a collection of smaller LEDs below for the full effect. The headlights, meanwhile, are cleverly hidden in the lower intakes.