Alpine prepares to unveil its first electric car | GRR
Alpine is all set to unveil the first of its new-era electric cars, the first of what has been promised as a whole range of new EV models. It’s been designated the A290_β (pronounced ‘beta’).
The car that gets unveiled on Tuesday 9th May will be a show car that “foreshadows the brand's future electric hot hatch”. Judging by the silhouette teaser, our best guess is that we are about to get our first look at the hot Alpine version of the impending Renault 5 EV.
The name is a functional one for now, and we suspect the ‘β’ part will be dropped by the time the A290 makes it to production, as this refers to this car’s current status as a test model.
The A290 expands on the brand’s existing naming logic. The ‘2’ apparently refers to the size of the car, while the ‘90’ is the new label given to the brand’s “multi-purpose sports vehicles”. We suppose a hot hatch of a similar size to the Renault 5 EV falls under that umbrella. Future sportscars, meanwhile, will continue the ‘10’ lineage already in use on the A110.
There has long been an expectation that Alpine would be revealing a sporty version of the 5 EV, and this first Alpine EV is due to hit the market in 2024.