- Renault’s Alpine reveals its first bespoke electric vehicle, the A390, which features a tri-motor setup with torque vectoring.
- The quicker variant has 463 hp and sprints to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds.
- Alpine wanted to enter the U.S. market in 2027, but that plan is likely on hold now.
Alpine is Renault’s sporty arm, which currently only builds a spiced-up version of the Renault 5 called the Alpine A220. Its next vehicle, the A390, is arguably more important, as it’s the brand’s first bespoke EV, designed to appeal to Porsche Macan EV buyers, promising aggressive styling and a driving experience to match.
It’s around five inches shorter and four inches lower than a Tesla Model Y, straddling the line between what we would call a crossover and a hatchback. It’s a four-door model with a liftback rear, and while it borrows design cues from the A110 sports car, it also shows where the brand’s design language is headed next.
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Source: Alpine
The front is all about aggression, featuring high-set daytime running lights with additional LED elements below that appear to mimic rain (Alpine says they’re mountain-inspired), and small headlight projectors further down, where we’re typically used to seeing a car’s fog lights. The lower part of the fascia features air intakes with active shutters, a pattern that is repeated throughout the car, including in the rear, where it doesn’t receive a full-width light bar.
Inside, it gets a mix of Renault and Alpine elements. The steering wheel is unique to Alpine, and it looks suitably sporty for a vehicle like this. The screens are reused from other Renault products, but the designers wanted to give the cockpit area a wrap-around effect with the central screen angled toward the driver. The graphics on the two screens are also Alpine-specific, and it seems to have succeeded in creating a cabin with a sporty ambiance.
The A390 is only available with a tri-motor all-wheel drive setup that allows for torque vectoring in the rear with one motor for each wheel. The base A390 GT has 396 horsepower and 479 lb-ft (650 Nm) of torque, which enables it to accelerate from zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.8 seconds and up to 124 mph (200 km/h).
The most powerful variant, at least for now, the A360 GTS dials the motors up to 463 hp and 596 lb-ft (808 Nm), cutting the sprint time to 3.9 seconds and increasing the top speed to 137 mph (220 km/h). Both versions feature the same 89 kWh battery pack and an identical WLTP range rating of between 323 and 345 miles (520 and 555 km), which likely depends on the wheel choice (the car is available with either 20- or 21-inch wheels).
It shares its AmpR Medium platform with cars like the Renault Megane E-Tech or the Nissan Ariya, but it gets a bespoke suspension setup and much quicker steering. It features hydraulic bump stops that provide both improved comfort and better handling response. With a 49/51 weight distribution, Alpine chose to equip it with four-corner 365-millimeter rotors with six-piston calipers on the front.
DC fast charging at up to 190 kilowatts is enough for a 15 to 80% charging time of under 25 minutes, and its onboard charger includes vehicle-to-load (V2L) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality. Between its bidirectional charging capability and 18.8 cu-ft (532-liter) trunk, this may actually be a pretty good EV for camping, as long as the camping spot is not too far off paved roads.
Official pricing hasn’t been confirmed, but it will likely be priced to compete directly with the Macan EV and the Maserati Grecale Folgore, which are its main rivals. Alpine had previously announced that it wanted to enter the U.S. market in 2027, but it’s unclear if that plan is still in place (it most likely isn’t), with the new import tariffs and general anti-EV policies implemented by the Trump administration.
Alpine also said it was going to launch larger models specifically for the U.S. market, so it’s not clear if the A390, which is built in France, would have reached U.S. shores anyway. The upcoming electric replacement for the A110 sports car was going to be sold in the States, but if the brand deems it uneconomical to begin selling cars here now, Alpine will likely remain a Euro-only affair.
