In early 2021, Alpine announced plans to morph into a purely electric brand and offer a so-called “Dream Garage” consisting of three cars: a small hatchback “for me,” a crossover “for us,” and a sports car “for the weekend.” Although the GT X-Over electric crossover has already been spied as a test mule, it’s the hot hatch we’ll see first. Not the production version, but rather a concept baptized A290_β (A290 “beta”).
The world premiere is locked in for May 9 ahead of a market launch expected to take place around 2025. We’re being told the moniker follows the Alpine nomenclature by starting with an “A,” followed by three digits. The first one refers to the vehicle’s size, while the next two reflect the type of vehicle: “90” will be used by the “multi-purpose” cars such as this one, while the sports cars will have “100.”
As for the use of “β” in this particular case, it references beta software, meaning it’s not the final product and is only used during the testing phase. Consequently, the Greek letter will be dropped for the production model, which will be simply called the A290. Alpine isn’t sharing any technical specifications about the electric hot hatch, but we’re hoping to learn more during the debut event organized in the UK.
The A290 Beta won’t be the Renault Group’s first electric hot hatch concept as it will follow the 2017 Zoe E-Sport with its mighty 460 horsepower and the 2022 R5 Turbo 3E with 375 hp. Don’t expect Alpine’s small EV to be as extreme since reports state it will borrow the electric motor from the Megane E-Tech Electric. Provided that’s happening, the feisty zero-emission hatch could have approximately 215 hp (160 kW) and 221 lb-ft (300 Nm).
Alpine’s parent company Renault has already announced its reborn 5 coming in 2024 will have a multi-link rear suspension, so even the version carrying the diamond logo aims to deliver sharp handling. Both will be underpinned by the CMF-B EV platform with as much as 70 percent of parts taken from the CMF-B-based Clio. The battery will consist of four big modules in a single layer to cut 15 kilograms (33 pounds) compared to the Zoe and its 12-module pack.
As a final note, Volkswagen will beat Alpine to the punch by introducing an ID.3 GTX before 2025.
