Alpine will crown its electric sports car line-up with the A310 – a 2+2 tourer that will put the French firm toe to toe with the likes of Porsche, Maserati and Lotus.
Tipped by the marque to be “an icon of future sports cars”, the new EV will arrive in 2028 and serve as a flagship for an expanded all-electric Alpine line-up.
The firm’s new range will include the recently launched A290 hot hatch, the upcoming Tesla Model Y-sized A390 and coupé and drop-top versions of the next-generation electric A110 – a car that will replace its acclaimed lightweight combustion sibling, which will bow out of production later this year.
The line-up will be rounded off before the end of the decade by three more EVs, which are thought to be larger, E-segment models that Alpine will use to break into the American market.
The new A310 takes its name from a radically styled four-seat coupé from the 1970s. The company will position it as a more practical alternative to the upcoming A110 EV, in effect mirroring the relationship the 718 Cayman and the 911 have within Porsche, a brand whose success Alpine is looking to replicate.
Alpine marketing director Bruce Pillard has previously told Autocar: “The A110 is limited in volume because it’s a two-seater and we know that adding two more seats in a car will make a huge difference.”
A key selling point for the A310 will be its lightness, made possible by the new Alpine Performance Platform (APP). The scalable architecture will be used first by the A110 EV next year and has been developed exclusively for Alpine’s future sports EVs. More mainstream models – such as the A290 and A390 – will use variations of platforms from the Renault Group, which owns Alpine.
Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has claimed the APP will allow the electric A110 to be “lighter than a comparable car with a combustion engine”, despite the penalty incurred by weighty battery packs. For reference, the current A110 is one of the lightest cars in series production, at 1102kg - a billing the brand wants its cars to retain in the electric era.
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