Alpine Alpenglow concept teased

The Alpine Alpenglow is the first concept car of the brand’s new all-electric era, and will be revealed in full tomorrow ahead of an in-the-flesh debut at the Paris motor show next week.

Seemingly designed with race tracks in mind, the Alpenglow features wide fenders surrounding a small domed driver’s compartment, presumably featuring a centrally-sited seating position.

Up front there’s a full-width light bar bookended by large triangular sections with a shattered glass lighting effect. This we presume is reference to the car’s name, which Alpine describes as the “horizontal streak of red-tinged light [which] appears on the mountains before sunrise and after sunset”.

There’s also illuminated red strip runs up the front bumper and along the central spine of the bonnet.

Regardless of whether the Afterglow itself goes into production, it signals a shift in design direction for the French sports car brand, and is said to preview the styling of its new cars “both on the road and in competition”.

It marks quite a departure from Alpine’s only current vehicle, the A110, which can be described as classically beautiful, but lacking in any overt aggression.

Launched in 2017 as a Porsche Cayman competitor, the coupe has plenty of styling details that hark back to the original model from the 1960s and 1970s, including the four round headlights and the overall silhouette.

While the car was well received by enthusiasts and the press, it became clear that it couldn’t sustain the brand all by itself.

Over the next few years, Alpine will be relaunched with an A110 successor, as well as hotter versions of upcoming Renault vehicles.

On the sports car front there will be an electric replacement for the A110 based on the E-Sport platform being developed by Lotus.

Alpine will also, effectively, replace Renault Sport as its parent company’s performance sub-brand. The Alpine name will be attached to high-performance variants of the Renault 5 hatch and the Renault 4 crossover.

The brand left Australia in 2021 after the A110, like so many other niche vehicles, fell afoul of Australian Design Rule 85 governing side-impact collisions.

MORE: Alpine lays out its electric futureMORE: Alpine A110 axed after ADR changes