Latest news with #A110EV
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Alpine's Electric A110 Will Be Lighter Than Its Gas-Powered Rivals
An often-touted gripe against high-performance electric vehicles is how heavy they can be, lugging around a massive battery to power the motors for longer than a few minutes. However, Alpine is flipping the script with the next iteration of its venerable sports car. The French manufacturer claims that its next-generation A110 EV will be lighter than its internal combustion competitors when it debuts next year. This is the same car Alpine hopes to sell in the United States. Alpine revealed the A390, its second-ever EV, on Tuesday. While the A290 is an uprated badge-swapped Renault 5 E-Tech, the new tri-motor sport fastback is bespoke to the brand. The five-seater A390 produces 470 horsepower with a 0-to-60-mph time of 4.8 seconds and debuts a new active torque vectoring system. The fastback's 89-kWh battery will get 345 miles of range in Europe and is equipped with 190-kW fast charging. Don't worry if this all-wheel-drive car isn't agile enough for your taste, Alpine isn't abandoning its sporty roots. The French brand is gradually unveiling a seven-model electric "Dream Garage" lineup over the rest of this decade to revive the automaker's image. The A110 EV is believed to be the next car in the works, with Alpine developing a new electric sports car platform that will also underpin a four-seat A310 model. Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo told Autocar, "The next A110 will be lighter than a comparable car with a combustion engine but with no compromise in performance." De Meo compared how Porsche doesn't use the 911 platform for anything, but cars like the Cayenne and Taycan are shared with other models — like how the A390's platform is shared with the Renault Scenic. Read more: These Are The Cars You'd Buy If They Were $20,000 Cheaper Alpine becoming a French Porsche is an appealing idea, and the French brand has toyed with an electric sports car before. The A110 E-ternité concept was revealed in 2022 as a harbinger of its all-electric future. It attempted to replicate a traditional ICE A110 as closely as possible, but there was still a performance deficit. The E-ternité was 568 pounds heavier and had 80 miles less range, but was 0.3 seconds faster from 0 to 60 mph. One can only imagine the performance gains the A110 EV will benefit from when shifting to a completely bespoke platform. The only other question that remains is if we will actually see these new Alpine electric vehicles in the United States. It's fair to say that President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs have thrown a wrench in the plans of any European manufacturer considering an expansion into the American market. Alpine was in talks with AutoNation to distribute its cars across the country, but that was before "Liberation Day." Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Alpine A310 due in 2028 as Porsche 911 rival
A310 will be a stretched, more practical A110 and use new-era design cues Alpine will crown its electric sports car line-up with the A310 – a 2+2 tourer that will put the French firm toe to toe with the likes of Porsche, Maserati and Lotus. Tipped by the marque to be 'an icon of future sports cars', the new EV will arrive in 2028 and serve as a flagship for an expanded all-electric Alpine line-up. The firm's new range will include the recently launched A290 hot hatch, the upcoming Tesla Model Y-sized A390 and coupé and drop-top versions of the next-generation electric A110 – a car that will replace its acclaimed lightweight combustion sibling, which will bow out of production later this year. The line-up will be rounded off before the end of the decade by three more EVs, which are thought to be larger, E-segment models that Alpine will use to break into the American market. The new A310 takes its name from a radically styled four-seat coupé from the 1970s. The company will position it as a more practical alternative to the upcoming A110 EV, in effect mirroring the relationship the 718 Cayman and the 911 have within Porsche, a brand whose success Alpine is looking to replicate. Alpine marketing director Bruce Pillard has previously told Autocar: 'The A110 is limited in volume because it's a two-seater and we know that adding two more seats in a car will make a huge difference.' A key selling point for the A310 will be its lightness, made possible by the new Alpine Performance Platform (APP). The scalable architecture will be used first by the A110 EV next year and has been developed exclusively for Alpine's future sports EVs. More mainstream models – such as the A290 and A390 – will use variations of platforms from the Renault Group, which owns Alpine. Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has claimed the APP will allow the electric A110 to be 'lighter than a comparable car with a combustion engine', despite the penalty incurred by weighty battery packs. For reference, the current A110 is one of the lightest cars in series production, at 1102kg - a billing the brand wants its cars to retain in the electric era. Innovative power management software, in the form of active torque vectoring, will also be used to give the 'driving dynamic of a lightweight car' and counteract the dynamic penalty of a several-hundred-kilogram weight gain, said Alpine CEO Philippe Krief. The Frenchman, known for his work as an engineer on such acclaimed sports cars as the Ferrari 458 and Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, said Alpine is committed to the A310 and its sporting rangemates remaining true to the dynamic principles that have defined the brand and the four-cylinder A110, such as agility. Pillard said these measures are necessary to make the A310 'an icon of future sports cars' and a 'true Alpine'. Outright performance will be another key pillar of the A310's positioning. It will adopt the same tri-motor set-up – one at the front and two at the rear – as the forthcoming A390 SUV. Alpine's most powerful car to date is the 345bhp limited-run track-focused A110 R Ultime but its upcoming electric sports cars are likely to surpass that and be capable of far quicker 0-62mph times. However, design boss Antony Villain said recently that Alpine's future models aren't 'about just driving straight', so the A310 is unlikely to be endowed with full-bore supercar levels of power, at least in its standard form. Visually, the rakish A310 will adopt a similar front end to the A390. Previewed in concept form, the SUV ushers in a new era of Alpine design language, with a distinctive wraparound light bar, a sharply pointed nose and a Le Mans-inspired central fin at its rear. Notably, the A390 also has wheels that light up blue when the car's torque vectoring is activated – a feature that could also make its way onto the A310 as Alpine seeks to explore ways of making muted electric car driving more exciting for onlookers. However, unlike other driver-focused EVs such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the A310 won't emit artificial engine noises or simulate gearchanges. Krief has previously told Autocar that Alpine's EVs should not sound like they have a combustion engine. He added: 'This is fake. This is really fake. I don't like fake things like that.' Instead, the A310 is likely to emit a distinctive sound created from the noise the electric motor makes, as in the A290 hot hatch. 'We could find something that is not the same but [similar],' said Krief. 'It is very easy to do that.' ]]>
