Every great sports car has at least one outstanding characteristic, an attribute that makes driving it that bit sweeter. For the Alpine A110, everything stems from its lightweight.
Alpine returned to the market with the A110 six years ago, and this was instantly heralded as one of the best sports cars of its generation, including earning a five-star rating from Autocar’s road testers.
Since then, the one-car French firm owned by Renault and led by Laurent Rossi has established itself as a serious player in the performance car scene and started racing in both the World Endurance Championship and Formula 1.
Now for the next step, as Alpine transforms itself into an electric-only brand over the next three years, with three all-new EVs arriving by 2026: a hot hatchback based on the new Renault 5 supermini, a coupécrossover called the GT X-Over and a successor to the A110 (promisingly being developed in partnership with Lotus).
This grand plan seems to have a conflict at its very heart: the petrol-engined A110 tips the scales at just 1120kg but batteries are heavy, so embracing electrification puts the very essence of Alpine at risk. And this budding brand simply can’t afford to abandon its philosophy.
As a sign of just how significant this risk is, the boffins in Dieppe have already given us a taste of the future in the form of the A110 E-ternité concept car, an electrified version of today's A110. Revealed last year, it was created to serve as a test bed for future technology.
"The E-ternité, as a first draft, is actually almost as efficient as the ICE car, albeit slightly heavier, but it had better torque and was not too far away in terms of weight distribution," explains Rossi.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 12, 2023 من Autocar UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 12, 2023 من Autocar UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Poster car that went from rusty to trusty
One evening, two years ago, George Pappas was being driven down his local high street by a mate and mulling over whether to replace his Mk4 Golf diesel, a recent purchase that was boring him to death, when his girlfriend, also in the car, spotted an old BMW 3 Series at the side of the road with a 'for sale' sign in the window.
THE SEVEN-SEATER THAT VOLVO DARE NOT KILL OFF
The current-gen XC90 has been on sale since 2015 for good reason
GENESIS ELECTRIFIED G80
Where the story begins, in the Hyundai premium marque’s luxury saloon
LEXUSLBX
Can you shrink premium quality to fit an SUV this small? We now know
Rolls boss ready to 'define the next chapter'
Nine months into the job, Rolls-Royce CEO and car guy Chris Brownridge tells STEVE CROPLEY what he's learned and where the firm's heading
Once more, with feeling
AC Cars' recreation of the classic MkII Cobra is at first glance a faithful facsimile of a 1960s performance benchmark. SIMON HUCKNALL drives it
MERCEDES-BENZ CLE
Does a PHEV set-up work in a coupé that exudes such old-school vibes?
ANALOGUE SUPERSPORT
Lotus Elise specialist uprates 1990s icon with an eye on track days
ALPINE A290
The hot hatch is alive and well, and living in France. On both road and track, there's much to savour`
UK HANGS ON TO OLD CARS
Average car age climbs as high prices dampen demand for new models