X-rated: 2025 Alpine A290 unleashed as pint-sized hot hatch to rival Abarth 500e and MINI Cooper SE
Reborn French performance brand Alpine has launched its first EV – the A290 – ahead of its showroom debut early next year.
Based on the achingly cute Renault 5 EV revealed earlier this year, the new Alpine A290 is styled like a mini-WRC rally car, sporting wide black wheel arches, deep side skirts and rear diffuser. With large 19-inch wheels and distinctive X-shaped driving lamps you won’t mistake it for the stock R5.
The A290 should also drive a cut above the car it’s based on too, with Alpine switching out the R5’s 110kW front-mounted e-motor for the punchier powertrain from Renault’s Megane E-Tech electric SUV.
When the A290 arrives there will be two powertrain options – a 130kW/285Nm (GT and GT Premium grades) or 160kW/300Nm (GTS and GT Performance) – with both variants featuring bespoke software to offer sportier power delivery.
The quickest A290 GTS and GT Performance will launch from 0-100km/h in 6.4 seconds and top out at 170km/h, while the less powerful A290 GT can hit 100km/h from rest in 7.4sec and reach 160km/h.
By modern EV standards, such numbers may disappoint performance enthusiasts, especially in something badged ‘Alpine’.
Combined with the Renault 5’s largest 52kWh battery pack, Alpine says the A290 should be capable of covering up to 380km on a single charge, although an official WLTP figure has yet to be homologated.
Alpine claims a 15 to 80 per cent recharge takes around 30 minutes thanks to a charge speed up to 100kW.
Like the R5, the A290 offers bidirectional charging and has vehicle-to-grid capability, allowing energy stored in its battery to be sold back to the grid in times of high demand.
Helping agility, the Alpine A290 weighs a svelte-ish 1479kg – a useful 126kg lighter than its closest rival, the MINI Cooper SE.
Boosting its athleticism further on your favourite road, beneath the skin there’s significant updates over the Renault 5.
There’s a new subframe for the electric motor, while the front suspension’s been redesigned to widen the track up to 60mm.
Revised suspension knuckles, bespoke springs and dampers and fresh anti-roll bars have been introduced, plus the same hydraulic bump stops first introduced on the Renault Megane RS 300 (2017-2022) are fitted.
Bigger Brembo brakes and specially-developed tyres complete the upgrades, although there’s no mechanical limited-slip differential up front to allow the hot Alpine to deploy its torque more effectively.
At the back, the R5’s multi-link rear suspension carries over and could one day allow a second motor to be packaged, but for now the A290 remains front-drive with a 57:43 weight distribution.
When it’s launched in Europe the A290 will be offered in four model grades – an entry-level GT and the GT Premium, which both offer 130kW, and the GT Performance and flagship GTS, which get the higher-output 160kW e-motor.
Rather than replicating the sound of a hot hatch – or even a V6 or V8 – Alpine says the A290 has a soundtrack based around the “natural harmonics” of its e-motor… but presumably turned up to 11.
Within, the A290 mostly carries over its cabin from the Renault 5. There’s a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster plus a 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen using a Google-based operating system.
Alpine-specific changes include a new steering wheel with an ‘OV’ (overtake) boost button and a pair of sporty bucket seats.
Making its debut is Alpine’s new Telemetrics system, which offers Live Data, Challengers and Coaching functions, the latter aimed at helping drivers go faster on the racetrack with advice on braking and even drifting.
In the right-hand drive UK market, pricing’s expected to kick-off from around £36,000 ($69,000), which should make the little Alpine A290 over $10,000 more expensive than the Abarth 500e, which is priced from $58,900 in Australia.
There’s no word on if and when our market will receive this Alpine EV. The French brand launched here in 2018 with the brilliant (combustion) A110 sports car, but shut up shop with the arrival of stricter side-impact crash rules introduced in late 2021.
Announcing that it wanted to move from niche sports car-maker to become a premium all-electric global brand, Alpine says it will launch seven all-electric cars from 2024 until 2030.
As well as this A290 in 2025 there will be a ‘Crossover GT’ small-medium SUV, a second sports car (A310) and two new SUVs designed to rival Porsche’s Macan and Cayenne.
