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Alpine A390 revealed
3 weeks ago
It's fair to say the A390 has a lot to live up to
So when you talk to Alpine people about the kind of car the A390 is intended to rival, they cast the net far and wide, from top end Cupra Tavascans and BMW ix2s to bottom end Maserati Grecales and Porsche Macans. Not bad – if it can do it – for a car parked on the same (albeit highly adapted) platform as the Renault Megane. Then again the rumour mill suggests Alpine is not going to be shy about pricing either when the order book opens towards the end of this year. First cars are slated to be turning up on drives from next spring and if you worked on the basis that the base GT model will come in around £60,000 and the more powerful GTS some £70,000, I don’t think you’d be a million miles out.
So what is all that moolah buying you, save a genuinely good-looking electric crossover? Well what’s getting Alpine excited is not its 89kWh battery giving a claimed range of around 340 miles. Nor is it the almost 400bhp of the GT or near 470bhp of the GTS that’s floating their boat right now. They’re quite fizzy about the 595lb ft of torque the GTS can deploy, and the fact that, as a result, it can match the A110 R’s 3.9sec dash to 62mph, and clearly proud that this dusts not just the base Macan EV, but the 4S version.
"They’re quite fizzy about the 595lb ft of torque the GTS can deploy, and the fact that, as a result, it can match the A110 R’s 3.9sec dash to 62mph, and clearly proud that this dusts not just the base Macan EV, but the 4S version"
But actually? It’s the electric motors Alpine is convinced is going to provide not just a USP, but the upper hand when it comes to dynamic bragging rights. Because it has three of them, one at the front as you might expect, but also one for each of the rear wheels. And the significance? It provides the facility for active torque vectoring, so not merely using the brakes to slow an inside wheel to help the car into a corner, but actually accelerating the outer wheel.
Alpine points out that the A390 is now the only car on sale for under €100,000 to offer such a setup. It says the result is: ‘unparalleled dynamism and agility, partially offsetting the inertia associated with the size and weight of this larger vehicle.’ Ah yes, weight. It’s quoted as being ‘from 2121kg’ otherwise known as over a tonne more than that of an A110. So if that torque vectoring is going to disguise that, it will need to work very hard indeed. But Alpine seems to think it can.
There is a press release produced to accompany the unveiling of the A390 and its very first words are these: ‘A single obsession drove the creation of the Alpine A390: driving pleasure. Alpine’s all-new sport fastback embodies the brand’s DNA and the exhilarating driving experience of the A110 with added versatility. It can be summed up as follows: a racing car in a suit.’
Even accounting for the inevitably self-serving nature of such documents and discounting for the claim inflation they always contain, that is one hell of a cheque to write for a five-door electric crossover. To stand any chance of cashing it, the A390 will need to be nothing less than a new dawn for such vehicles, something utterly different to anything we’ve seen to date.
And before you dismiss the possibility, remember Alpine has done it before with the A110. All I would say is that the challenge of creating the finest sports car of the modern era looks likely to be a walk in the park compared to making good on a promise like that. I look forward to finding out if it does.
