Renault Sport resurrected? New Alpine A290 road and track review
Has the new Alpine A290 come to fill the gap the Renault Sport left behind?
Brits love French hot hatches. It's been that way for decades. But since the demise of Renault Sport, we've been left wanting.
Step forward the new Alpine A290, which indirectly picks up where the last RS Clio left off, providing over 200hp front-drive punch in a muscular body that unashamedly plays on nostalgia.
Using the already brilliant base of the electric Renault 5, Alpine (which absorbed Renault Sport in 2021) has created a plus-£30k hot hatch seemingly perfect for British tastes.
It's small, light (for an EV) and quick, but that's only half of what's required. It also needs to be playful and engaging, as well as comfortable enough for daily use – something few 'hot' hatches, let alone electric cars, manage these days.
But this is Alpine, a brand that knows how to make great handling, comfortable cars, as we saw with the A110.
Question is, can that engineering expertise be transferred into an electric base intended initially for urban life? Sam Sheehan, a self-professed French hot hatch fanatic and our motoring editor, heads to the A290's launch in Majorca to find out.
Using a 52kWh battery, 180hp (and 275Nm) electric motor, along with multilink rear suspension and hydraulic bump stops, the Alpine A290 will cost from about £33,500 when it goes on sale in 2025.
But the car we're testing, the GTS, will cost from £38,000, and for that, you get 220hp and 300Nm of torque.