The Alpine A290 has gone on sale in the UK, with prices ranging from £33,500 to a lofty £38,500.
That means the electric hot hatch costs £10,505 more than the cheapest Renault 5 or £4505 more than the top-rung variant.
The sibling EVs were jointly crowned European Car of the Year earlier this month, with Autocar represented on the judging panel.
Standard kit in basic GT trim (which uses a 52kWh battery and a 178bhp motor) includes a 10in infotainment touchscreen, heated seats, a heated steering wheel, wireless smartphone mirroring and 19in alloy wheels.
At £36,000, GT Premium trim adds nappa leather and blue brake calipers, while GT Performance trim brings 215bhp, red brake calipers and telemetrics.
The range is topped by GTS trim, which gets you black alloys for £37,500, and limited-run Premiere launch edition, which at £38,500 includes a host of blue design touches and the optional Safety Pack and Driving Pack.
Customer deliveries of the A290 will begin in April.
DESIGN
The Renault-owned brand’s debut EV preserves the spirit of last year’s outlandish Beta concept, with a wide-reaching design makeover that marks it out obviously from the Renault 5 upon which it is based and emphasises its sporting billing.
The A290 is the same length as the Renault hatch, but its track has been increased by 60mm, endowing the muscular A290 with a wider stance in order to appeal to “stylists and performance enthusiasts alike”, according to Alpine..
The exterior design contains distinctive details that play into Alpine’s motorsport heritage, such as the X-shaped motifs on the spotlights. Wider wings, deep side skirts, chunky 19in alloy wheels and a black rear diffuser round off the A290’s rally-inspired look.
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Have to trim levels?, most of the options have no real sale value come trade in anyway, the all singing all dancing might hold onto its value along with the introduction model,and we don't know how good it is is it on a par with the current ICE hot hatch brigade for instance?, and I'm sure we could all name something secondhand that we'd rather drive.
All well and good, but I don't think performance EVs have the same appeal as older performance models like the Golf GTi, 205GTi, or Mini Cooper S when standard EVs are already pretty brisk (and in this case cost considerably less). Years ago, the Golf and 205GTis were real "must have" cars which sold in huge volume, as I see it this Alpine badged R5 is a low sales niche model. Maybe part of the problem is that Alpine just doesn't have the cachet of other performance brands - at least not in this country and not yet.
I can't help thinking that base model might be the one to go for here. Certainly has enough power for B road fun and it is the handling I am after really.