2027 Alpine A110: Dieppe wants to beat Porsche at the Nürburgring
The countdown is on for the reveal of the next Alpine A110, which is set to arrive with electric but be ready for petrol. We have all the details
Alpine has confirmed details pertaining to the next generation of its A110 sports car, expected to arrive before the end of 2026. Lessons learned from the car that relaunched the brand to such critical acclaim will inform a completely new strategy – one that will involve global saleability and numerous variants, based on an all-new aluminium platform that can take a variety of powertrain types and be versatile enough to form the basis of a wider family of sports cars. Here’s everything we know, including the latest updates confirmed by Alpine CEO Philippe Krief to our sister title Auto Express at Renault Group’s Strategy day.
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When will we see the next Alpine A110?
News of the electric A110 first materialised in 2022 amidst the announcement from Alpine’s CEO at the time, Luca de Meo, that it was to go EV-only. A 2024 launch for an electrified A110 was initially proposed at the project’s infancy. That has been pushed on as plans for the car have evolved, with new CEO Philippe Krief subtly steering it in a more powertrain-agnostic developmental direction. At this stage, we could expect to see the car fully revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October, or at the latest next year in 2027. We also don’t expect the roll to stop with the coupe – subsequent derivatives are likely to follow in the years leading up to the end of the decade.
In terms of design, word is of delicate proportions similar to those of the current car, with design language developed from that first seen on the Alpenglow hypercar concepts. Our first look at the new platform that will underpin it came from Renault Group’s strategy day – we can believe the sleek low-slung design will be retained.
2027 Alpine A110 powertrains and platform
The next A110 is set to be based on the new aluminium Alpine Performance Platform (APP). The burning question of the moment of course, is what will power the next Alpine A110. The answer is, initially, electric.
The car is expected to borrow much from the Alpine-developed Renault 5 Turbo 3E. We knew before that Alpine would not be going with a skateboard architecture and now we’ve seen APP, we can now see that it will feature two battery packs, one where the engine used to be and one in front of the cabin. This allows a 40:60 front/rear power-to-weight ratio. Though exact kWh figures aren’t known for the battery, a minimum of 350 miles of range is the target for the A110.
The new A110 is targeted to weigh under 1450kg, right in line with the now-discontinued 718 Porsche Cayman. The Cayman is also the target at the Nürburgring, where Alpine wants the A110 to be competitive and deliver its performance reliably and consistently.
Alpine has confirmed the new A110 will use a 3-in-1 e-axle, packaging dual in-wheel motors with a silicon carbide inverter, supporting its high-performance use case. It’s also expected to have more than the 464bhp the top-spec A390 GTS boasts. APP’s versatility also includes being able to offer four-wheel drive.
Kinship with the Turbo 3E is also what’s allowed Alpine to get as much development done as it has without production prototypes being spied: Aside from the freedoms and versatility virtual development now allows, the Renault 5 Turbo 3E can effectively serve as a mule until very late in the game.
Alpine is even hoping to make the battery pack in the electric A110 replaceable, allowing buyers to both maintain maximum performance, upgrade to the latest chemistry and in theory, avoid some of the disastrous depreciation associated with every other high end performance EV currently on the market. Ferrari is also taking a similar approach with its hybrid models, with Krief overseeing the development of replacement battery packs for the LaFerrari in his previous role there as CTO.
2027 Alpine A110: Ready for a combustion and hybrid powertrain
Unlikely at initial launch but possible for introduction further down the line is the inclusion of a combustion element for markets that demand it or legislatively allow it. In conversation with evo at the launch of the A390, Alpine CEO Philippe Krief clarified to us that the new APP aluminium underpinning is being engineered to be as versatile as possible: ‘The plan is to do electric but we asked the question of whether it would be possible to do other powertrains,’ Krief said.
‘We found a solution that will allow us to do it if we decide to push the button on ICE, mild hybrid or plug-in hybrid without compromising the car. I think we could have opportunities to gain some markets where EVs aren’t so popular, offering ICE or plug-in. I want to be ready for anything. You need to be light and agile in the way you develop things.’
Exact details of the petrol power plant aren’t known, Alpine insisting development is yet to even begin, only that the A110 is ‘ready’ for it. Parent company Renault owns a 45 percent stake in Horse Powertrains, a company that specialises in internal combustion engines, supplying engines to Caterham for its next-generation Sevens.
Development of the all-electric Alpine A110 is well advanced and timing is on track for its arrival by the end of next year. With the versatility that’s being baked into APP, Alpine is well-positioned to offer an A110 for all tastes and can avoid the multi-billion-euro headache that Porsche now faces: re-engineering dedicated electric sports cars for a combustion engine retrofit.
Next Alpine A110: What versions will there be?
APP is very much a big picture underpinning, not just forming the basis of the next two-seat A110 coupe but any sports car Alpine wishes to turn its attention to.
The current A110, launched in 2018, has only ever been available as a two-seater coupe powered by a 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine mated to a seven-speed (six-speed in R Ultime-form) double-clutch gearbox driving the rear wheels and was not homologated for sale in the US, or easy to adapt for say, a convertible.
Not so the new platform, which has been designed to form the basis of the new A110 coupe, but also leave options open for a convertible and wider, longer four-seat sports car models, as Krief told us: ‘We are working on the brand new platform, APP, Alpine Performance Platform. Out of which we’ll have all the new sports cars from Alpine, the first of which will be A110.
‘Today the A110 cannot go into the US easily, it’s not easy to do a Spider. The new platform is a lot more modular for that – ready for the US if the time comes.
‘There’s modularity in length and width also, to have a convertible, to have two-seater or 2+2. When you start from scratch, you try to think of the maximum possibilities. Our small engineering team of 230 people are fully dedicated to APP.’
As for whether these will all be called A110, or whether there will be other derivations, we’ve been given the steer that there will be multiple distinct models based on APP. The three pillars get their own end numbers: 90 on A290 and A390, the everyday cars and 10 on the icon cars. A110 is the smallest, so A210 or A310 aren’t unreasonable guesses as to the name of Alpine’s forthcoming 911 rival set to join the A110 in the lineup.
Will there be another Alpine A110 R and A110 Ultime?
The scope of APP’s versatility will be pushed the furthest under the new special projects arm, the first product of which was the A110 Ultime. We should expect to see more special projects, including successors to the A110 R and A110 Ultime but also more ambitious models.
With Krief’s background at Ferrari, he has experience of delivering high-horsepower cars with aluminium core structures and he’s revealed to us, an Alpine supercar and hypercar are part of the special projects plan all being well.
