Why Alpine's A290 Rallye might just be the coolest electric car on sale

A strong design, equally strong performance and the Alpine badge have made the A290 a go-to performance EV since it went on sale earlier this year, but the French marque isn’t satisfied just yet. To mark its 70th anniversary, Alpine launched the €59,990 (c£52,000) A290 Rallye, built for customer racing with uprated components, safety equipment and an increased focus on pace. We had a first look during its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Before you place your order though, there is a small catch. The Rallye isn’t a standard production model you'll find in your local dealership, and will instead find its place in one-make race series and open competitions across the globe. Alpine’s already organising the former for an event later this year in France, which will feature all of the charging infrastructure you need to keep the car’s 52kWh battery pack (identical to the one in the standard road car) topped up. Alpine is also keen to stress that these charging stations will use environmentally friendly energy ‘depending on the location’, whatever that means.

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It certainly looks the part, but given the minimal changes made to the A290’s exterior design, that says more about the design of the standard car than anything. All that Alpine has changed with the Rallye is that central cooling vent on the roof, a set of decals and those quick release bonnet latches. Everything else is aesthetically identical to the road car you can buy today, with body-in-white, lights and windows all the same.

Look a little closer though, and more advanced changes become apparent. To ensure it meets those all-important FIA regulations, a welded roll cage and Sabelt bucket seats have both been added inside. It’s also been given uprated six-piston front brakes with 350mm discs (the standard car comes with four-piston calipers), with the rear single-piston calipers acting upon 280mm discs. Race-spec ABS is also now part of the package, with those aforementioned wheels being 18-inch rally-spec EVO Corse items in white, wrapped in road-legal (in Europe) Michelin Pilot Sport A asphalt tyres. 

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The Rallye’s underpinnings are shared with the ordinary A290, of course, but Alpine has given the car its own dedicated ALP Racing shock absorbers to help it withstand the stresses of a rally stage. A new, proper hydraulic handbrake will also go some way to helping it perform out on the stages (if any of these changes trickle down the road car, let this be the one). 

Just like the range-topping A290 GTS road car, it features the same front-mounted electric motor producing 217bhp and 221lb ft of torque, but there are changes here too. Unlike the road car, the Rallye comes with a mechanical ZF limited-slip differential, a new reduction gearbox (probably for a different final drive ratio) and an updated powertrain management system to give full control over stability control systems. 

Alpine has also acknowledged that sound is important for both the driver and spectators, and so has included an Abarth 600e-style exterior sound generator that makes a noise to match the car’s speed and throttle position. Performance figures haven’t been disclosed, but expect it to at least match the 6.4sec 0-62mph sprint and 106mph top speed of the road car. 

Each and every example will be assembled at Alpine’s competition workshop in Dieppe, costing each buyer from €59,990 (c£52,000) for a completed car.

Alpine A290 Rallye specs