Alpine A290 review

Alpine offers some old-fashioned charms in this otherwise high-tech, zero-emissions hatchback

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This is the Alpine A290, the sporty variant of the Renault 5, and it feels to me like the return of the hot hatchback.

Maybe I’ve said that before, about the electric Abarth 500 or even the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, much larger, more expensive and powerful though that is.

But sufficiently few are the approachable, hot, practical electric cars that it feels appropriate to mention it. Along with the A290, anyway, these strike me as the three EVs that talk to the enthusiast.

The A290 will go on sale in the UK in March next year. Prices will be confirmed in January 2025, but are almost certain to have the meat of the range in the mid-£30,000s.

There’ll be two power options, 178bhp and 217bhp, but mechanically they’re identical, as compact, fun front-drive hot hatchbacks at less than 1500kg and, as we’ll see, more entertaining that probably anything similar on the market.

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DESIGN & STYLING

alpine a290 profile panning

The A290 is based on a Renault small electric car platform called AMPR; the R5 and this Alpine are the first two cars to be based off of it. It’s a compact car, at 3.99m long and 1.52m high, albeit it’s 1.82m wide across the body. Overhangs are relatively compact too, with a 2.53m wheelbase.

The battery pack, 52kWh of usable capacity, sits beneath the floor and its stressed to increase body rigidity. The A290 has borderline retro styling including a bonnet reminiscent of the original 5, beneath which, here, lies the motor and some associated gubbins, with a single reduction gear and front-wheel drive through an open differential.

Suspension is mechanically close to the R5, with struts at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear, but there are bespoke elements to the Alpine variant. Springs and dampers, of course, but also anti-roll bars, hydraulic bump stops and a lighter, aluminium, front subframe which also positions the motor differently to in the 5.

All up the A290 in either power output weighs 1479kg – pretty good for an EV – while weight distribution is 57:43% front:rear.

All A290s, and I quite like the purity behind this, wear 19in alloys with 225/40 R19 Michelin Pilot Sport S5 tyres developed for the car. There are different wheel appearances but no size option: just the right tyre, of the right dimensions, as specified by the dynamics engineers. Alpine, which has been a one-model brand until now with the A110, wants to become a bigger entity, but not give up its handling purity. Fair enough.

INTERIOR

alpine a290 matt prior

Your correspondent here hasn’t spent any time in an R5’s interior but I quite like that of the A290. Materials look pretty good even if not all of them feel it, and it’s quite functional. There is a touchscreen, of course, but it runs Google’s automotive software which is quick to respond and largely simple to navigate, while climate functions, the door locks, driving assistance switches, the lights, and stability control are all on separate, physical buttons. For me it gets the blend right.

There are some toys on the touchscreen, by the way. G-meters and the like as you might expect, but some gamification functions like a 0-62mph measurer, plus tutorials on how to corner better. Gimmicky, granted, but given Alpine talks things like lift-off oversteer in it, it’s nerdy gimmicky, so I don’t mind that.

They claim the steering wheel is F1 inspired, which means it’s not quite round and has some coloured buttons on it, one for drive modes, one for maximum overtaking urge (pushing the throttle through a kick-down point does the same) and a dial to change the amount of regen. The front seats are pleasingly supportive and large, and although that impacts rear legroom and this is a compact car in the first place, at 5’10” I could still sit behind my own driving position with an inch or two of kneeroom, and about the same headroom. Having five-doors is a practicality advantage and the boot opening is large even if, at 326 litres, the boot itself isn’t vast.

One other scarcely believably weird thing: keen to have commonality between Alpines, the gearshift buttons have been moved to the centre console like the A110s, but that’s where the cupholders would be on the R5, so there aren’t any. Front door pockets are small and the rear have no door pockets at all. Apparently cupholders will become available as an accessory later but it strikes me as an amazing oversight.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

alpine a290 panning

You can have your Alpine A290 in two power outputs, 178bhp or 217bhp, but so far we’ve only tried a high-spec 217bhp version. That has a claimed 0-62mph time of 6.4s to the 178bhp car’s 7.4sec, but they’re both pretty mechanically the same, so it’s all software.

Brakes are by 320mm discs at the front, 288mm discs at the rear, with the fronts having the same calipers as the A110 sports car. Alpine’s range is going to go in two different directions: more accessible sports cars like this one, and more extreme sports cars like the current A110 and a fully-electric replacement for it, but the people behind it are keen to keep common elements to both.

Performance of the 217bhp version is pleasing for a road car. Response is, as you might imagine, extremely good – easily meted out, positively responsive, with a gentle step-off from rest. I suppose for nearly 1500kg it’s a relatively modest amount of power, but unlike, in, say, an old Clio 197 where you could find yourself in the wrong gear at the wrong time, here you get as much of it as you want all the time. Enough, in fact, that the 221lb ft will trouble the steering wheel with torque steer mid-corner or if the road is anything other than smooth. While there’s an open differential, in cornering the A290 can brake an inside front wheel under acceleration to keep power going to the outside and help the car turn.

There are two augmented sound profiles, or you can choose neither, but they don’t mimic an engine noise as per an Abarth and nor, unlike the Ioniq 5 N, do they have fake gearshifts: Alpine’s engineers were a little sniffy about the idea. Personal choice of course but instead of having a rotary dial for the regen level, I wouldn’t mind steering wheel paddles to add a bit of interaction. Brake feel is excellent – you’d be pushed to tell when regen slowing stopped and mechanical braking started.

RIDE & HANDLING

alpine a290 rear cornering

We’ve tried the A290 on both road and track. And it’s not often that an EV maker will expose one of its cars to extended track use, but Alpine is keen to extol the virtues of the A290 as a hot hatchback and, remember, these are the people that as Renaultsport used to make the best hot hatches in the business.

To the road first, though, and the A290 is a good thing. The ride is relatively calm, treading a line somewhere between that of an Abarth 500, which is tied-down comically, and an Ioniq 5 N, which rides more flatly but is also considerably bigger, more expensive and around 700kg heavier. The A290 is at ‘about right’ levels for a daily driver, which means it’s less focused than, say, old Clios and later Meganes used to be. Instead I’d say it finds Golf GTI levels of compliance and control; perhaps a bit loose in extremes on loose surfaces but with agreeable comfort instead.

Dampers aren’t adjustable but the pivot point of the car sort-of is depending on the drive mode. The A290 can brake an inside rear wheel to assist turn-in, but whatever drive mode you’re in (save, normal, sport or personal) it feels respectably agile. The centre of gravity is low, so even if it is several hundred kilos heavier than a Clio, it turns well.

The steering is relatively light, accurate, linear, and while you don’t get loads of feel at road speeds, it does offer mechanical interaction because it’s tugged around under power. Tweaking a front inside wheel brake to enhance traction while cornering isn’t a new thing, but Alpine have tuned the system to the extent that you can accelerate mid-corner and find you get additional turn-in, rather than it scrubbing wider. The early Ford Focus RS used to do that, albeit even more heavily than this. Later Renault Meganes (like the Focus RS and I think the Vauxhall Astra VXR too) used an additional steering knuckle on the front struts to reduce the distance between the turning centre and the wheel centre – which is the levering distance over which torque steer operates. The A290 doesn’t get these, but if the system were to have any more power, and the chassis could take it, it might need them.

How great it is, by the way, to be having these kinds of conversations about a hot hatchback again, which have been absent for too long for my liking. Hyundai’s N division always said that car enthusiasts were the last to be talked to by EVs. Finally we’re getting there.

On a circuit the A290 feels just as impressive, maybe even more so, than on the road. Perhaps it’s just the shock of finding that an electric hatch has been tuned to do these things, but fast Renaults were famous for being throttle adjustable and the A290 is too. It grips really well, absorbs curbs and lumps excellently, takes on more steering feel (cornering forces are higher so this is not a surprise) but offers genuinely engaging amounts of throttle adjustability. Lifting mid-corner will shuffle weight around, trailing brakes into a bend engages the back wheels and, if you want to enter a corner with some opposite lock, you can do it with some weight transfer by giving it a bung. That stability control can be turned off with an extended push of one button should have been a clue to that Alpine’s engineers meant business. Four laps of a circuit where nothing overheats and the brakes don’t give out demonstrates it.

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MPG & RUNNING COSTS

alpine a290 lead

With only a 52kWh battery, you might not expect a thrilling range from the A290 and you don’t really get it, either, which is the inevitable trade for having a relatively modest sub-1500kg weight.

On the combined WLTP cycle the range is 226 miles, and on the way out to take some photos I drove pretty carefully and realised this is a feasible target. If you drive more normally, I think you’d see 180 in daily driving. In four high speed laps of a relatively short circuit, flat throttle or maximum braking for most of the time, I used nearly 15% of the battery’s charge, in perhaps six to eight minutes. A bigger track with a longer, higher-speed straight would get through it much more quickly, but if you can find a circuit with high-speed charging capacity, I track days are feasible.

A heat pump is standard and maximum charge speed is 100kW, though I don’t know if you’ll get it.

VERDICT

alpine a290 driving

ow refreshing it is to instead of just be talking range and where you might try to obtain some semblance entertainment, to instead be talking about a proper hot hatchback things like differentials, torque management and lift-off oversteer. The hot hatchback, it seems, may be back.

It’s not priced like old hot hatches were when Clios were twenty grand, but what is these days? Our understanding is that 178bhp Alpines will start at around £33,500, with the 217bhp model at around £38,000. Quite a lot for a car of less than four metres long, but not so bad for a car of real capability, adjustability and a seriousness to its performance and handling that would make you question the point of an Abarth 500e – or whether you really need to stretch to that Ioniq 5 N to get really capable EV thrills. I like it.

Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes.