In recent years, the once dormant French car brand Alpine has made a resurgence. Relaunched in 2017, for six years it offered only one car to its name in the A110 sports coupe, but now there are three in the line-up, with more to come.
Today, Alpine (pronounced al-PEEN) is effectively the motorsport and performance car division of Renault – a bit like Abarth is to Fiat. Renault’s racing programmes – most notably its Formula One team – have been rebranded as Alpine, alongside a line of sports-pitched road cars.
So who or what is Alpine?
Alpine was founded in France in 1954 by Jean Rédélé, who was a garage owner in Dieppe and successful in racing and rallying. His cars were extensively modified Renaults, and his motorsport efforts even extended to competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Encouraged by his success, Rédélé created the Alpine brand, named after the Coupe des Alpes road rally in which he had achieved multiple wins. He was unaware that, just a year earlier in the UK, Sunbeam had launched a model called the Alpine (although, being English, it was pronounced AL-pine). This caused issues for many years.
The first proper Alpine model launched in 1955 was the A106 coupe, which placed a lightweight body on a Renault chassis. The car proved highly successful in motorsport and later spawned a cabriolet version.
The A108 coupe launched in 1958, and by now Alpine’s official connections to Renault were growing. The A110 coupé of 1962 was also very successful in rallying and, by 1968, Alpine cars were being sold in Renault dealerships. The company also became the de facto Renault competition team, winning the 1973 World Rally Championship outright.
In that year Alpine was badly affected by the international oil crisis and salvation came in the form of a takeover by Renault. The company continued to develop sports road and racing cars, focusing more on track success. Renault also took over specialist tuner Gordini and merged it with Alpine to form Renault Sport, which won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1978 and competed in F1 from 1977 to 1985.
Renault-Alpine road cars continued to be sold through the 1980s and 1990s, culminating in the A610. But the last car was made in 1995 as Renault dropped the Alpine badge – the market for such cars was getting too difficult.
Incidentally, no Alpine models had ever officially been sold in the UK at this point due to the Sunbeam trademark – instead they were generally known as Renault Gordinis.
When did Alpine launch in the UK?
The revival of Alpine was a drawn-out process. Renault’s post-millennium future model plans included a desire for several sports cars and in 2007 it was revealed that the first one – a two-seater mid-engined car that was intended to launch in 2010 – could well be badged Alpine. However, the global recession put the plans on hold.
Various concepts followed along with a short-lived partnership with UK small sports car manufacturer Caterham, and not until 2016 was the Alpine Vision concept unveiled, pointing directly to a new Alpine A110 which went on sale in 2017 as the Alpine badge was officially relaunched.
Alpine’s motorsport history remained core to the new brand. In 2021, the Renault sports car and racing divisions were absorbed into a new Alpine division, separate to the main Renault brand. The Renault F1 team, which had come and gone multiple times over the previous 20 years, was also rebranded as Alpine.
What models does Alpine have and what else is coming?
For six years Alpine sales were focused entirely on just one Alpine model, the A110. It’s a small two-seat coupé with a design directly inspired by the original 1960s A110. It went on UK sale in 2018, and was joined by an more powerful A110S a year later, while there have been various different versions and limited editions over the last three years.
The A110 model run comes to an end in 2026, partly as a result of more stringent European safety regulations that require the fitting of active safety cameras and sensors that are too expensive to add to the existing car. However it will eventually be replaced, by an electric version developed by Lotus.
The A110 has proven a big hit with both buyers reviewers, and has has won many awards around the world. As of 2026, it holds an Expert Rating of C, with a score of 64% on The Car Expert‘s industry-leading Expert Rating Index, its high running costs and lack of Euro NCAP safety testing marking it down.
Current Alpine range on our Expert Rating Index
Since 2024 Alpine sales staff have had twice as much to talk about following the launch of the A290, a small electric hatchback and effectively a more potent version of the highly popular Renault 5 hatch.
The A290 offers either 180 or 220hp depending on trim level, which has disappointed some reviewers who feel its power is not boosted enough over the stock Renault 5 E-Tech. Despite this it has earned a New Car Expert Rating of A, with a score of 75%.
Arriving in 2026 is the A390, an electric coupe-crossover and the brand’s first SUV. Of similar size to a Tesla Model Y, the car boasts three motors with the accent on performance – two of the motors are mounted on the back axle to bias the all-wheel-drive to the rear, and in total the car puts out 470hp.
Alongside the next A110, due on sale in 2027, Alpine will launch effectively a bigger version with two extra seats. The 2+2 sports car has been dubbed the A310 (recalling a model with bold styling that Alpine launched in the 1970s) and is designed to take on the likes of the Porsche 911. Both cars will be electric and both will also be offered later as convertibles.
Alpine has also indicated that three more EVs will be revealed by 2030 – these are likely to be large cars, designed to launch the brand onto the potentially lucrative US market.
Where can I try an Alpine car?
The determination to build Alpine into a specific brand, independent from Renault, is clear in the fact that the cars are not sold through all Renault dealerships, but through a network of specialist dealers called Alpine Stores. Mind you, several of these outlets are owned by dealer groups that also have franchises for the parent company and the Alpine centre is located close to the Renault one.
In total there are 19 Alpine centres in the UK, including just one in Wales, in Cardiff, and one in Jersey.
What’s particularly significant about this company?
Alpine has a strong French sporting heritage and, while with the A290 and forthcoming A390 it has expanded beyond dedicated sports cars, it’s clear the brand considers its motorsport image a core value.
It’s also clear from the future cars revealed that Alpine intends to move into new sectors of the market and new markets, particularly America.
Regardless of what size and shape that future cars take, they will always be sports models. Renault’s former RenaultSport (R.S.) performance division has been folded into Alpine, so any future models like previous fan favourites the Clio R.S. and Megane R.S. will (in theory) be branded as Alpines.
It should work similarly to Fiat’s performance brand, Abarth, which sells performance versions of the Fiat 500 as Abarth models.
An Alpine fact to impress your friends
Today the World Rally Championship – the on road and gravel version of Formula One – is a battle between three giant car manufacturers, Toyota, Ford and Hyundai. But the very first year the competition for manufacturers was held, in 1973, it was won by the then independent Alpine.
Alpine-Renaults have also won the gruelling Le Mans 24 Hours, in 1978, but the one prize missing is the Formula One World Championship. The Renault F1 team has been Alpine since 2021 but currently looks unlikely to add this prize to the trophy cabinet, finishing 10th and last manufacturer in 2025.
Summary
In recent years the automotive market has produced a growing number of niche brands, most of them courtesy of larger manufacturers wanting to do something a little different to their normal mainstream offerings, and with varying degrees of success.
Still a young brand in its current form, Alpine has proven more successful than most of these niche badges, establishing itself with a single model offering that is a very good car and then taking this reputation into new areas with the A290 and coming A390.
The new models move Alpine beyond the brand’s initial very niche appeal, that of buying a plaything to run alongside a day-to-day car, and Alpines to come will accelerate that process. It will be interesting to see if Alpine can maintain its niche appeal in the mainstream.
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