The Alpine A290_β Is A Three-Seat Electric Hot Hatch Concept

When it comes to convincing drivers that electric hatchbacks can be fun, Alpine isn’t messing about. The French company has just revealed a new three-seat concept that puts the driver in the middle of a race car-inspired EV.

Called the A290_β (or beta), the car was revealed at an event Bristol, south-east England this evening. Although a concept for now – that three-seat layout is very unlikely to make production – Renault-owned Alpine says the concept’s exterior looks “a lot like the future production models will.”

Alpine goes on to say how the car is powered by a pair of electric motors. But instead of these powering both axels for all-wheel-drive, as is common in many models of EV, for the A290_β they each power a front wheel.

This means the car is front-wheel-drive, but with the potential for sophisticated torque-vectoring, where the motors shuffle power between the front wheels, depending on which has the most grip and where the most power can be deployed. Hopefully this will make for some pretty impressive cornering from the compact EV.

Alpine says it has put a lot of effort into making the A290_β a real drivers’ car, with “extensive fine-tuning to achieve both playful and efficient behavior.”

The concept car places its driver in the middle with a passenger (or “co-pilot” as Alpine says) flanking them on either side, just like the McLaren F1 and Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 supercars. In a nod to Alpine’s motorsport achievements and Formula One team, the A290_β features a bespoke steering wheel and driver-centric dashboard. There’s also a motorsport-style hydraulic handbrake.

Antony Villain, design director at Alpine, said: “The A290_β combines a racing soul with urban influences. It is designed for a new generation of hot-hatch enthusiasts.”

Alpine sees a production version of the A290 sitting alongside a pair of other EVs in a so-called “Dream Garage”. The two other cars include an all-electric successor to the Alpine A110 sports car, and what the company describes as “a GT crossover”, also fully-electric and more family-friendly than its smaller, sportier siblings.

Although Alpine says the car uses two motors up front, the company hasn’t shared any performance statistics. That said, the car is likely to use the same 52kWh battery as the Renault Megane E-Tech and have a range in the region of 250 miles, with a charge rate of up to 130 kW.

The show car is 4.05m (159.5in) long, 1.85m (72.8in) wide and 1.48m (58.3in) tall, and Alpine says it is “a taster for a sparkling, agile production car with a short wheelbase and wider track for sporty driving and greater stability at high speeds.”

Other details of the concept car include its aluminum wheels that combine three colors and measure 20 inches.

While the three-seat layout, complete with raw carbon bucket seats and Sabelt racing harnesses, is tantalising enough, what I’m excited for is how the road-going A290, due in 2024, will look and perform. I really hope the boxy, rally-bred styling of the concept is retained, and while the car will surely be offered as a regular four-seater, I hope Alpine is still able to have some fun with its first electric hot-hatch.

I’m particularly interested by the use of two motors on the front axle, combining clever torque vectoring with the typical front-drive layout of a hatchback.

For years now, driving enthusiasts have demanded to know how an electric car will be made fun to drive. With this concept, it looks like Alpine thinks it has the answer.