ENSTONE, England — The centerpiece of Alpine’s future sports car strategy is its own APP platform, a bonded-aluminum chassis that can accept a variety of battery and electric motor configurations — as well as an internal combustion engine.
Alpine, Renault Group’s sports and racing brand, recently revealed that APP (short for Alpine Performance Platform) would underpin the next A110 sports coupe (due by 2027), a cabriolet version, the A310 2+2 coupe and other unidentified future models. A previously announced collaboration with Lotus has been disbanded.
Alpine and Renault executives said that it was the E-Ternite (“Eternity”) concept — a full-electric version of the current A110 announced in July 2022 — that convinced them they already had the expertise to electrify the brand without an outside partner.
Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo told investors and journalists at an event at Alpine’s Formula One center here it was important that Alpine “not lose control” of the platform because it is so central to the brand’s identity and creates value. “We realized we had to produce [Alpine models] at our pace and on our platform,” he said.
The E-Ternite was based on the A110’s aluminum platform and used off-the-shelf Renault Group electric components. It was able to achieve performance and driving dynamics very similar to the internal-combustion A110, which is powered by a 1.8-liter gasoline engine that delivers about 250 hp, executives said.
“It was not just a one-off concept. We quickly realized it was much more than that,” Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi said. “It’s actually the key to our future, the cornerstone of our lineup.”
APP will have an 800-volt electric architecture, Rossi said, but it can also accept other drivetrains, including potentially a hydrogen-powered combustion engine for “ultra high performance” applications. It is 200 kg lighter than competitors’ platforms, Rossi said, to give the A110 “amazing lightness and agility.”
It can be lengthened by up to 420 mm and the track widened by 80 mm, Alpine said.
The battery configuration is also flexible. The next A110 will have a large battery behind the seats and a smaller one in front of the dashboard, while the A310 will have a battery under the floor as well as behind the seats, and a second motor in the front for all-wheel drive.
Future models could include four-door cars or a crossover with larger wheels, Alpine said.
Cars built on the platform can be from 4300 to 4850 mm long, with a height of 1300 to 1550 mm. Power output for planned models ranges from 250 to 500 kilowatts; battery size is planned to be 77 to 100 kilowatt hours.
APP-based cars will be built at Renault’s small factory in Dieppe, northern France. The factory has about 350 workers with a maximum output of about 6,000 cars annually; Alpine expects to sell about 4,200 A110s this year.
De Meo said the Dieppe factory would continue to run “flat out” to produce the A110 and future APP-based models but did not comment on other potential sites. He also would not comment on potential volumes for the platform, although Alpine executives have projected total sales in excess of 100,000 annually by 2030.
One future potential competitor for the electric A110 is the next Porsche 718, due in 2025 a full-electric model that will be underpinned by Volkswagen Group’s Premium Platform Electric (PPE).
Porsche is planning a 800-volt architecture for PPE; like Alpine’s platform, it is scalable: from small to midsize cars, with variable track width, ground clearance and wheelbases. PPE models will have the battery packs under the floor, with an announced maximum power of 475 kW and battery size of up to 100 kWh.
In addition to future 718 models, PPE will underpin the next Porsche Macan SUV.