Renault’s Future Plans: Alpine EVs and Partnership with Lotus

Renault Group may not have had much presence domestically, but it has been striving, especially in Europe- its homeland. It is not just a slogan to chase Volkswagen in the electric vehicle industry. In Europe, the sales of the Renault ZOE are almost equal to those of the ID.3, while Renault is also investing in power battery factories.

Today, we put aside the strategic slogans and take a look at what Renault Group is going to do in the future.

In addition to cooperating with Envision AESC, Renault has also reached a cooperation agreement with the French battery start-up, Verkor, on high-performance power battery supply. At the same time, Renault also subscribed to 20% of its shares.

Reviving Alpine is also part of the plan. The reason why Renault replaced Renualt Sport with Alpine is to reorganize the product line and to focus on two legs- Alpine is the e-performance front and the Renault brand is for ordinary household use.

Moreover, Renault hopes to transform Alpine from a niche sports car brand into an international e-performance brand, and the key is to create a high-performance electric vehicle that can stand out in the market.

However, in terms of timing, the first Alpine model may not be so heavyweight, and it is likely to be an EV version of the retro Renault 5. More excitingly, Alpine will collaborate with Lotus on two high-performance cars.

The first sports car may be named 210, replacing the A110, and will be very similar in appearance to the latter. However, 210 will also have many special designs for electrification, such as low resistance door handles, enclosed front face, etc. Like its predecessor, the 110, the 210 will also put great emphasis on handling, which is why Alpine chose to work with Lotus.

Although the specific partnership model is still unknown, it is reasonable to speculate that Lotus will be responsible for building the vehicle architecture, and 210 is likely to have a very lightweight all-aluminum chassis. However, due to the weight of the battery pack, its lightness will inevitably not be “ultimate.”

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo admitted that the cost of electric vehicles is inevitably higher, so its pricing must be more expensive than the gasoline version.

Another car is likely to be a four-door hunting car, called the A410 GT by foreign media.

The competitors of the A410 GT may be the Audi e-tron GT and Taycan Cross Turismo. Foreign media has compared its outline with that of the Taycan, and found that their roof lines align in height, but the rear of the A410 GT is fuller.

Although partner Lotus also has the Evolution platform developed with Geely’s support, the A410 GT is more likely to share the CMF-EV platform with the Nissan Ariya.

🔗Source: Carscoops

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.