Latest news with #AlpineA110
Auto Express
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Express
New Kia Sportage revealed in this week's Auto Express
In this week's issue of Auto Express we have the lowdown on the new Kia Sportage, which gets a fresh new look, a posher cabin and more power to help it stay at the top of its game. We also have the latest scoop on Alpine's electric A110 which takes aim at the electric Porsche Boxster and Cayman. Advertisement - Article continues below Plus, we take a closer look at the updated Toyota Aygo X city car and have fresh spy shots of the new Porsche 718 Boxster EV. In the drives section we get behind the wheel of the hot MINI JCW Electric, try out the Audi Q5 Sportback and hit the road in updated Renault Austral. If that wasn't enough we also pit the Volkswagen Tayron against the Hyundai Santa Fe in a family SUV battle. This week's issue of Auto Express is on sale now and there's a whole range of ways to get your hands on it! Find out more below. The best value available to our readers is an Auto Express subscription. You can try your first 6 issues for just £1, plus all new subscribers will receive a free welcome gift when they join. We deliver free, straight to an address of your choosing so you can be sure that you'll never miss an issue. If you wish to continue your subscription after your trial ends you save a massive 45 per cent on the shop price, paying just £32.99 every 3 months. Our money back guarantee means that should you need to cancel at any point we will refund any unmailed issues, you can't beat that value! Click here to visit our secure online shop and subscribe to Auto Express... If you prefer to read Auto Express on your desktop, tablet or phone, you can get the digital edition through our online partner Zinio. Single issues are available from £2.99 or a subscription for an entire year is just £90.99. Click here to download Auto Express digital edition from Zinio... If you don't want to get your next 6 Auto Express issues for £1 by subscribing (RRP £28), then you can still buy single issues in shops or online. This week's issue of Auto Express is on sale now for just £4.50. You can find shops near you that stock the magazine by clicking here. If you can't make it to the shops or are unable to find it somewhere convenient, you can buy individual print issues of Auto Express to be delivered directly to your door. Click here to buy single issues of Auto Express
Auto Car
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Car
My Week In Cars: New Steve Cropley/Matt Prior podcast (ep.143)
Close This week Steve Cropley and Matt Prior meet in a top designer's office to talk about some secret Rovers, why the upcoming death of the Ford Focus ST means to much, Steve's newly shiny Alpine A110, the Audi A3 PHEV, and much more besides, including your correspondence. Make sure you never miss an Autocar podcast. Subscribe to our podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts or via your preferred podcast platform. And if you subscribe, rate and review the pod, we'd really appreciate that too.
News.com.au
29-05-2025
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Alpine A390 arrives to reboot the Alpine brand in Australia
The Alpine A110 is one of those cars that's impossible to hate. From its cute coupe's styling, inoffensive size, explosive performance and sublime handling it's no wonder an Alpine owner is easy to spot in a police line-up – they're the ones with the permanent fixed grin. Engage one in a conversation and you'll instantly regret it, such is their cult-like devotion for the A110 you'll lose hours being lectured at why they are, and always will be, better than a Porsche. Which is strange because despite their keenness to spread the good word in the four short years it was on sale in Australia (2018-2022) Alpine, perhaps best know Down Under as the F1 home of Aussie driver Jack Doohan, sold just 106 of them – hardly enough to make ends meet for the reborn carmaker. Hence why the local outfit is rebooting itself with an electric mid-size SUV – Australia's favourite flavour of car in one of the fastest-growing segments and once again the French Renault-owned carmaker has a Porsche in its sights with its all-new A390. Like the little A110, we've got few complaints of the Alpine's looks. In fact, some might argue it's stunning. Said to have drawn plenty from the Alpenglow super car concept, plus the A424 LMDh Le Mans endurance racer, the new Porsche Macan rival sports dramatic styling that includes complex air bending lifted from motorsport. The 17-degree rear roof angle and the 8-degree angled diffuser for example, were both found to be optimal following exhaustive wind-tunnel testing of the Le Mans racer. Everywhere you look there's yet another example of designers attempting to maximise downforce for high-speed stability with adding range-sapping drag. Despite designed to pinch sales from the Macan, the A390 is much smaller car but tipping the scales at a still tubby 2121kg means it's a considerable 209kg lighter than the Porsche's 'Porker' Macan. With less weight Alpine engineers have been able to maximise the performance of the A390 state-of-the-art triple-motor powertrain that uses a small e-motor to drive the front wheels and a pair of beefier units to spin up the rears. Even the base GT produces 295kW and 650Nm or torque for a brisk 4.8 second 0-100km/h dash and a 200km/h top speed but if you want the version that can live up to the Alpine legacy you'll need the 345kW GTS that produces a monstrous 808Nm of torque. Off the line, the most powerful A390 GTS takes 3.9 seconds to hit 100km/h form rest and tops out at 220km/h which makes it as quick as the fastest-ever A110. The parallels with the A110 coupe continue. Believe it or not but Alpine says behind the wheel the A390 drives just like the little two-door coupe, despite being twice as heavy. The secret is a trick suspension with comfort-boosting hydraulic bump stops and the ability of the two rear motors to mimic a limited slip differential, with it able to tailor the way the A390 attacks a corner. In the process not a single kW is wasted. Of course, the A390 isn't perfect. Based on the same platform as the cheaper Renault Megane E-Tech it misses out on the most powerful 800-volt electrics, so the 400-volt Alpine can only handle a DC charge up to 190kW – a big drop from the Macan's 270kW – with the resulting 15-80 per cent top-up of the 89kWh battery claimed to take 25 minutes versus the Macan's 21 mins claim for a bigger 10-80 per cent recharge of the larger 101kWh power pack. Alpine says range is bang on the money at 555km on the Euro WLTP range but space within isn't, with less room in the second row to stretch out beside the Macan, with engineers claiming the lack of space is deliberate as they wanted to the shortest wheelbase possible to enhance agility. At least the Alpine comes with both a vehicle-to-load capability to charge external devices and a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) feature that could one days see owners take advantage of the cheapest electricity prices Down Under. Speaking of price Alpine Australia is keeping its cards close to its chest, only confirming it for our market with pricing and full specification to come much later. Hopefully, our timing will mirror what's happening in the UK with right-hand drive versions of the A390 set to land in dealers in Q2 of 2026. The bad news is British-market Alpine A390s don't come cheap, with the battery-powered mid-size SUV hotly tipped to cost a considerable £60,000 (A$125,000) for the cheapest GT, not far off the what's charged for the Porsche Macan ($A! 33,700). That's serious money for a brand with limited cache Down Under, except among a loyal band of diehards who will continue to insist any Alpine is better than a Porsche. 2026 Alpine A390 RANGE: 555km POWER: 345kW combined TORQUE: 808Nm SPARE: Repair kit *estimated
Daily Mirror
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mirror
Multi-millionaire car fanatic 'never knew' feature of his 'favourite' car
Neil Clifford, the CEO of Kurt Geiger and a co-host of the The Car Podcast with Chris Harris and Friends, has admitted it took him two months to spot a feature on one of his favourite cars A multi-millionaire CEO and car obsessive has shared the "favourite" car he owns – admitting it took him two months to realise its feature. Neil Clifford, the boss of fashion brand Kurt Geiger, recently made the confession on The Car Podcast, which he hosts alongside Chris Harris, Manish Pandey, and Chris Cooper. He was talking with his co-hosts about which cars have the most pathetic boots. Chatting about everything from Audis to Ferraris, Neil also shed light on his treasured Alpine A110 and a discovery he had made during his tenure with it. He confessed to his co-hosts: "One of my favourite cars that I own has the most pathetic boot which is the Alpine A110. I owned the car for two months before I realised it had a boot. "It's really really really true because I'd read the Autocar test and you know it's the best car that's ever been built since the 1970s, and the only problem is the storage. But I could only find the back boot." "And then it took me a couple of months to realise there is a front boot. When you open it up it's clearly very underwhelming the front boot because you can only fit a banjo in it and clearly the banjo is that useful for us." Despite the initial oversight, Neil was full of praise for a car that's been praised from top to toe and corner to corner for its handling since hitting the roads in the late-2010s, reports the Express. Neil's commentary comes ahead of the launch of Alpine's highly anticipated electric SUV, the A390. However the French manufacturer, owned by Renault, has postponed the US launch due to Donald Trump's 25 percent tariffs on imported car parts. This setback comes amid wider caution over the future of electric vehicles, which commentators suggest has prompted Alpine to hit pause on their US expansion, reports Autocar. Renault's Chief Financial Officer Duncan Minto told the publication: "Considering what's going on in the US at the moment, I don't think it's the right time to be spending on those studies." Alpine is one of several manufacturers hit by the tariffs with Jaguar Land Rover halting exports to the States. A JLR spokesperson explained: "The USA is an important market for JLR's luxury brands. As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are enacting our short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid to longer-term plans."
