One of the incontrovertible stars of next week’s Paris motor show will be the glorious Alpine A390_β, a close look at how the Alpine A390, a ‘sport fastback’ by Alpine’s definition, will look when it is revealed in full in 2025. It’ll be the second all-electric car from the Alpine, following on from the Renault 5-based A290 hot hatch, and it’s promised to live up to the brand values of the French marque.
It looks sensational, doesn’t it?
That it does. There’s a vague reference to Alpines past in the profile of the A390, but it’s otherwise a thoroughly contemporary design, informed by aerodynamics as much as it is a desire to reinvent the Alpine look. Up front, an LED light bar joins the front lights with a prominent lit ‘ALPINE’ in the middle. Alpine calls the triangles of light underneath ‘Cosmic Dust’ and they’re found at the back with another full-width lightbar and the Alpine name lit red.
Don’t be distracted by the eye-catching lighting details, however, as there’s much more to pore over. There are big air scoops either side of the nose that allow air to flow around the front wheels as ‘air curtains’, while the almost-invisible triangular perforations (inspired, as much of the car is, by the shapes found in snowflakes) between those allow air in to flow back out over the bonnet. Interestingly, that may make it through to production, as the press release refers to the dramatic rear end as “more conceptual”. A shark fin follows the middle of the glass roof and protrudes from the rear screen, but the real magic is found below that. There you’ll find a prominent aerodynamic diffuser with intricate detailing, and both it and the main lightbar at the back move 80mm into a ‘long tail’ setup that is claimed to benefit the car’s electric range thanks to a reduction in drag.
The snowflake motif is readily seen in the style of the alloy wheels (22-inch front, 23-inch rear), with a little backlit jewellery in the centre inspired by the view through thin ice. Black wheelarch cladding hints at off-road ability, while the concept car also features cameras in place of side mirrors and, proud as ever of its homeland, Alpine has added what appear to be illuminated tricolours on the sloping rear pillars.
Finally, while the A390_β concept car is a five-door vehicle, the rear doors are hinged at the back for full theatre, making entry to the cabin easier in the process with no B-pillar in the way. We suspect that detail won’t make production, unfortunately, though Alpine reckons some 85 per cent of the show car’s design will make it through to the final product, so you never know.
Is the interior as spectacular?
Oh yes. Open those expressive doors and it’s clear that Alpine’s interior designers have been given free rein. Alpine supports that theory by calling the A390_β’s cabin “deliberately conceptual” and it’s remarkably different front and rear. In the back, the theme is one of comfort, inspired by the idea of untouched soft snow. A single piece of memory foam underpins the white surrounds. The floor, meanwhile, is made from lightweight, recycled carbon, and textured to give the impression of motion.
Up front, however, the A390_β feels like a raw trackday special, and it’s clear that the designers were inspired by F1 cockpits. A tiny steering wheel is no more than two hand grips in reality, with the ‘key’ - shaped like an ice crystal - placed at its centre and various other driving controls dotted around. A similarly technical-looking layered set of instruments sits ahead of that in what is otherwise quite a minimalist dashboard, though look closer and you’ll see a sliver of glass in front of the co-driver that can convey driving and navigation information to them.
The cabin has another trick up its sleeve though, and it’s linked to the highly detailed bucket seats up front. The driver’s seating position has two disparate settings, one with the pedals close to the floor and the seat in a conventional location for everyday driving. Then at the touch of a button the seat tilts into “F1” position at a much more laidback angle. The pedals rise up to match, too. The seats themselves have a carbon shell and four-point Sabelt harnesses.
So will it drive like a racer?
We only have a few titbits to go on, but they’re tantalising details all the same. The A390 will be built using Ampere’s ‘AmpR Medium’ platform (Ampere is Renault Group’s “electric vehicle and software company”) with a battery pack under the floor between the front and rear wheels. There’ll be a single electric motor driving the front axle, but two for the back wheels enabling what Alpine calls Active Torque Vectoring. The car will have all-wheel-drive capability, obviously, but we’re told that the system will not be permanent, so potentially it’ll be rear-drive a lot of the time.
No information about the performance, power output, battery size or range of the A390 has been hinted at, though the concept does feature an “OV” (for ‘overtake’) button on the steering wheel, individual buttons on the centre console for Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive and other controls for ‘hydraulic’ suspension and variable brake energy regeneration.
Will Alpine launch this in Ireland?
We really hope so. It has long been expected that Alpine would officially launch on the Irish market once it had electric models to offer and soon it will have three, as an all-electric A110 sports coupe will follow on from the A290 hot hatch and the showroom-ready version of the A390 shown here. The latter is expected to be unveiled in production format during 2025, setting things up nicely for a 2026 introduction to Ireland.