Alpine revealing electric hot hatch concept soon

Renault’s sporty Alpine division, which is transitioning to being an electric-only brand, will reveal a concept version of its upcoming electric hot hatch this month.

The A290_β (A290 Beta) will be unveiled on May 9 at 10:30pm CET, or 6:30am AEST on May 10.

The brand says the show car will “[anticipate] the future 100 per cent electric urban sports car to be introduced in 2024”, understood to be a hot hatch based on the upcoming Renault 5 EV.

The production version, which could wear the A290 nameplate, will be the first vehicle in Alpine’s “Dream Garage”.

Alpine says the 90 in its name refers to the brand’s “multi-purpose sports vehicles”, while its pure sports cars will have the number 10 in their name, like the current A110.

The electric hot hatch was first teased all the way back in January 2021, revealing LED daytime running lights reminiscent of the old Renault 8 Gordini.

A subsequent teaser revealed a silhouette almost identical to the Renault 5, but with a giant rear wing.

Like the Renault 5, it will ride the CMF-BEV platform that’s been designed for smaller EVs like the upcoming Nissan Micra.

We expect it to produce more power than the Renault 5, which will feature an 100kW electric motor.

The A290 will be joined by an electric replacement for the A110 on the new E-Sport platform to be shared with Lotus, as well as a mid-sized crossover based on the Renault Megane E-Tech Electric’s CMF-EV architecture.

While the A110 was discontinued locally in 2021 after stricter ADR85/00 side-impact regulations came into effect, but Renault Australia says the brand will return Down Under.

“In terms of the Alpine brand we are certainly in discussions with them but at the end of the day we would still be importing the A110 if the ADR didn’t kill it, it has been performing really well globally, up 33 percent year on year,” Renault Australia boss Glen Sealey told CarExpert earlier this year.

“They are working on an all-new product plan and we are very excited by Alpine and think that will work really well in Australia and specially with the timings.”