Oh No, Alpine’s Next Car Might Be An SUV

It’s a busy time over at Alpine. Renault’s performance brand is about to launch its first electric car, the A290 hot hatch, and there are rumours that one last, bonkers version of the A110 is coming to see it into retirement. Now, it’s confirmed a new electric fastback is coming.

The A390_β show car is set to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show on October 14, and that’s all the information we have about it. A solitary teaser image gives us a bit of a taste of what to expect, at least.

It seems ‘fastback’ is very much going to be applied as a marketing gimmick to a re-marketed crossover. Beyond that, we can see the typical Alpine touches – a logo on the front wheel arch and the French Tricolore on the C-pillar – plus some rather thin-looking taillights.

Although this will be a show car initially, we’re expecting the A390_β (Beta, if you didn’t know) to look pretty close to the final A390 road car as was the case with the A290.

Unlike the A290, which is Renault 5-based, the A390 will be a standalone product so we have no existing base to work from. Any technical details would be a pure guess, but expect it to be packing some serious power.

We wouldn’t put it past Alpine to make it a dual-motor car utilising two of the A290’s motors, which would give it a healthy 434bhp if that was simply the case. We’re expecting this to be a four-door, five-seat car, so it could pose itself as a rival to entry-level versions of the Porsche Macan.

This will be the second of Alpine’s plan for seven EVs in what it describes as a “dream-garage”. Among those following the A390 will be a proper SUV (boo) and a new A110 (yay). We’d expect to hear more on some of those fairly soon.