Renault's reborn Alpine team will work with Lotus on an EV sports car

Renault wants to be known as a technology-focused sports car powerhouse. To that end, the company is relaunching Alpine — a French manufacturer established in 1955 and acquired by Renault in 1973 — as an umbrella brand for all of its high-performance initiatives, including Renault Sport Cars and Renault Sport Racing (RSR). We already knew that Renault’s Formula 1 team would use the Alpine name this season. Today, though, Renault revealed that Alpine will also become a cutting-edge EV maker. The division is planning an all-electric hot hatch and larger sports crossover, as well as a replacement for the reborn Alpine A110 sports car.

The hot hatch and crossover will use platforms developed under the Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi alliance. The A110 successor, meanwhile, will be co-produced with Lotus, a Britsh automaker now owned by Geely, the Chinese giant behind Volvo and the London Electric Vehicle Company. In a press release, Renault explained that the Alpine and Lotus teams will conduct a “comprehensive feasibility study” that covers the design, engineering and development of an EV sports car. Lotus is already working on the Evija, a monstrous electric hyper set to come out later this year.

According to the Renault Group, Alpine vehicles will benefit from the Formula One teams’ technology and expertise, spanning areas such as energy management, safety and connectivity. Renault was once involved in Formula E, but exited the competition at the end of the 2017/18 season.

Laurent Rossi, the newly-appointed CEO of Alpine said: “The new Alpine entity takes three brands with separate assets and areas of excellence to turn them into an empowered, fully-fledged business. 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 percent electric line-up, taking the beautiful Alpine name to the future.”