Groupe Renault recently announced its intention to go all-in toward electrification and now we know plans for its Alpine division. That brand will be merged with two other entries, Renault Sports Cars, and Renault Sport Racing. All performance vehicle development and racing activity will now be housed under Alpine.
As part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Alpine will be able to leverage the partnership’s know-hows, platforms, global manufacturing capabilities, and extensive distribution networks. Alpine plans to have a lineup of three performance vehicles the first two will be a subcompact electric hot hatch built on the Alliance’s CMF-B EV architecture and a compact crossover on the CMF-EV platform, which is the same one underpinning the upcoming Nissan Ariya. The third model is an all-electric replacement for the A110, which will be developed in collaboration with Lotus. Renault recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Lotus for further cooperation beyond the sports car to leverage the capabilities of both brands.
“The new Alpine entity takes three brands with separate assets and areas of excellence to turn them into an empowered, fully-fledged business,” said Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi. “The craftsmanship from our plant in Dieppe, the engineering mastery from our Formula One and Renault Sport teams will shine through our tech-infused, 100% electric lineup, taking the beautiful Alpine name to the future. We’ll be on the tracks and the roads, authentic and high-tech, disruptive & passionate.”
Renault says that the next-generation Alpine vehicles will benefit from competition. Everything from energy management, safety systems, and connectivity solutions used in racing will be used to improve road cars. Alpine will continue racing activities in 2021 with F1 being its main focus along with rally and Endurance racing.
