Alpine will become a core part of the Renault group’s strategy in future, according to new boss Luca de Meo, with a key mission to make electric cars “thrilling and emotional”. The A110 is also set to live on with a number of variants.
Having recently announced that Renualt’s Formula 1 team will be renamed Alpine from next season, de Meo explained: “You had three entities: an F1 team, the Renault Sport engineering unit and a plant in Dieppe that was half-empty where the Alpine A110 is produced. Plus a brand like Alpine, which has some cachet and heritage which you can’t buy.
“In a company with strong financial issues [like Renault], the temptation is to say let’s stop this, let’s stop that. But what I saw was the possibility to bring these things together and create - if you’ll allow me the poetic licence - a mini Ferrari, putting Formula 1 at the centre of a business ecosystem and creating a brand which has motorsport, engineering, production and distribution.”
De Meo added that he believes the A110 has a future. “The first thing I want to do is organise its life-cycle management, à la the Porsche 911, so we will have different versions. And maybe turn the car electric if we manage to solve the business case, maybe find a partner for it.
“I will probably find a way, as I did with Cupra, to have contact between Alpine and Renault but we need to be credible with that. Alpine is a great way to project ourselves into the future - one of the missions is to make the electric car experience emotional and thrilling. This is basically the direction.
“For sure, Alpine has a future. It’s not going to be easy but we have very strong ingredients.”
De Meo added that he had given Cyril Abiteboul, Renault's F1 boss and now overall head of Alpine, the target of breaking even with the performance brand in three to four years.
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I don't see an issue with its
I say good luck to them and I really hope they succeed, I would love one as I love it's looks and having read how great it is to drive, I am certain it would be right up my street.
I'm sorry, but mentioning
I'm sorry, but mentioning Cupra as an exemplar for Alpine makes my heart sink. And if Alpine is supposedly an electric brand, why tie it to F1. All this just seems like utter nonsense to me. I hope the clearly talented engineers within the company manage to thrive in spite of de Meo, because the A110 is truly exceptional.
I think that's a very UK
I think that's a very UK-centric view - Alpine is pretty well known across Europe, not just France - which is why their sales figures there are so much better than here. If I remember correctly the A110 outsold the Boxter and Cayman combined across Europe last year.
You do not remember correctly
Around 5 hundred alpine were sold in europe in the first half of this year whereas 3k caymans and boxster were sold in europe. Over 3k tts were sold.
This is just for europe as the alpine isn't sold elsewhere which is maybe the reason it was almost binned this year. Oh and those sub fifty miles alpines from last year we argued about last time are still for sale at arnolds clrke.
xxxx wrote:
I said last year, you moron.
Sporky McGuffin wrote:
I can't see Alpine being well know anywhere, seeing that no Alpine badged cars were produced for 20 years before the A110. And most people will tend to think of "Renault Alpine" rather than as a marque in its own right
Mikey C wrote:
Again, very UK-centric - the "Renault Alpine" badge was only ever used in the UK.
I have to say I struggle with
I have to say I struggle with the business strategy here. Alpine is not a well known brand outside of France with the general public. It's arguably less well known than brands like Triumph. At A110 may handle brilliantly but it doesn't look pretty. It's a hard sell. Renault would be better off focusing on itself rather than this. There are much easier way's to do premium, maybe make FCA an offer for Alfa or Tata an offer for Jaguar.