Alpine A290: How to launch a rocket without waking the neighbors

Mercedes has AMG, Smart has Brabus, Fiat has Abarth, Mini has JCW. Almost every car manufacturer in the world has its own performance or sporty halo brand, which also serves as a sales booster. Some sell more, some less, some are completely new—this time we are focusing on Alpine, which belongs to Renault.

It’s customary to start with a history section to set the proper context, but we’ve done that a few times before, so we’ll summarize in two sentences and move on. Alpine, once an independent French sports car manufacturer, was absorbed by Renault in 1975.

Over the years, there were a few episodes that weren’t particularly successful, but now the brand is on a fast development path with a fully electric lineup, and the car paving the way for this new electric direction is the A290, following the fascinating but niche A110, and preceding the crossover A390—because even a sports brand needs to make a living.

The model’s name combines several worlds: The letter A from the Alpine brand, the number 2 representing the segment (in this case B, supermini), and the pair 90 describing its link to the more practical models of the sporty brand.

So the name is A290, but the base is the Renault 5 electric, recently launched in Israel, with a few changes, some significant, to inject Alpine’s sporty DNA. The front suspension, for example, is 6 mm wider and completely different, while the front end is 100 kg lighter than the Renault 5. The wider stance changes the steering calibration and shifts the weight distribution to 57% front and 43% rear. According to Alpine, this is the optimal distribution for such an electric hot hatch, whereas a comparable petrol “hot” model would have been 65% front.

Because the nose widened, it allowed for a larger motor—or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, now the electric engine from the Renault Megane powers the car. The engine is also tuned to fit a smaller, lighter car, without changing the specs: The top GTS version we drove has 220 hp and 30.6 kg·m of torque, reaching 0–100 km/h in 6.4 seconds.

These are decent figures, but not groundbreaking in the electric era—until you look at the weight, 1,554 kg. About 300 kg lighter, if not more, than its direct competitors. And that’s the Alpine angle, rooted in the brand’s sporty heritage.

Pressing the accelerator launches the car from a standstill, not brutally with a jolt to the back as we’ve come to expect from electric cars, but much more smoothly. Acceleration while moving is similar—excellent by all standards but not phenomenal like some direct competitors.

The power doesn’t just come from the accelerator, as is common in almost every modern car, but also from a small button on the steering wheel called OV, short for Overboost. This button comes from racing, where the driver presses it to get extra power for a quick overtake. Here, it doesn’t add to the existing 220 hp, but pressing the red button repeatedly mimics a kickdown from the accelerator—but it’s fun to feel like you’re racing even when stuck in traffic.

It’s not the only button on the wheel: There’s a driving mode selector and a brake regeneration level selector (4 levels). These three controls create the feeling that you are inside something else, something sporty, something that places the driver at the center.

To complete the sporty sensory experience, Alpine offers additional features like a dynamic instrument cluster that simulates a hyperspeed display inspired by Tesla Plaid models, the option to choose between two engine sound modes (in my opinion, the difference isn’t huge), and a “coaching” guide for hooligan-style driving, which explains both proper driving lines and how to drift.

And of course, there are the features that have become almost standard in a sports car: An action display with a G-meter, temperature gauges for the motor, battery, tires, and brakes, with all this dry data overlayed on footage from the car’s front camera. You can save the video for yourself or share it via the Alpine app so everyone can see what you’ve done to the poor car. For those less daring, you can invite close friends over and play it in your living room.

The Alpine A290 has the same 52 kWh battery as the Renault 5. Not much compared to competitors, but it creates the weight gap and gives the car a sporty feel. Because the A290 is powerful, heavier, and has stickier tires than the Renault 5, the range is almost 50 km shorter at 360 km. We managed to reach around 300 km in testing, but this wasn’t an exhaustive test, which we’ll do once we have the car in Israel.

Like the Renault 5, the A290 offers 11 kW AC charging and 100 kW fast charging, allowing 10–80% in 30 minutes.

Most sports cars punish the driver with stiff tuning. Surprise: The A290 isn’t too stiff. On French roads between Paris and the Loire Valley, it smoothed out various bumps, from cobblestone village streets to uneven suburban roads and highway irregularities. Noise insulation still needs improvement, as wind noise appeared earlier than expected, though it didn’t increase significantly at higher speeds.

Time and again, the hosts urged, “Drive, and then you’ll understand” its dynamic advantage. But when it came to key handover, they warned about hidden cameras and even turned on rain. Wet roads and cameras aren’t ideal for testing the limits (of me, not the car), but I could feel the sporty hints of the A290 maintaining balance impressively and cornering fluidly, and even more impressively, it does so by modulating the throttle.

In all these aspects, the A290 is similar to—almost identical with—the Renault 5. Sure, it boasts a few battle feathers like aggressive bumpers, X-shaped headlights referencing rally racing, and rear door curves mimicking air intakes as seen in the original Renault 5 Turbo. But you can’t mistake the exterior.

Inside, the spirit is similar, with Alpine’s traditional three-button drive selector in the center console, different upholstery materials, altered multimedia graphics, and some labels for those who forgot what they’re driving. The design and space are identical to the Renault 5.

That means modest dimensions, between a mini and a supermini: 3.98 m long, 1.82 m wide, 1.51 m high, with a 2.53 m wheelbase. Up front, there’s enough room, and the front bucket seats are embracing. But the rear is simply cramped with limited knee and foot space.

The trunk offers the same 326 liters as the Renault 5—a reasonable volume for a supermini, though bags must be lifted over a fairly high sill.

The A290 has flaws, such as limited range and cramped rear seats, but it compensates in other areas like powertrain, equipment, ride comfort, and above all, dynamic capability. Credit where due: Alpine delivered what they promised—a fun-to-drive electric hot hatch. A historical homage to the original mid-1970s R5 Alpine, Renault’s first car upgraded in Alpine’s workshop. Seen by some as the first hot hatch in history, though it depends on the category.

The Alpine A290 comes in three versions. The base GT with 177 hp (0–100 km/h in 7.4 seconds) for NIS 205,000. The GT Premium adds a Devialet sound system, wireless phone charging, heated seats, and Alpine Telematics for performance monitoring and gaming-style driving line practice, at NIS 220,000. At the top is the GTS, boosting output to 218 hp, cutting 0–100 km/h to 6.4 seconds, adding heated steering, and increasing the price by NIS 15,000.

That’s a lot of money for such a car; not long ago, you could buy a Golf GTI for that. Performance-wise, it surpasses even a basic Tesla Model 3. But few electric cars offer this road behavior, especially in such dimensions and weight, with styling appealing beyond steering enthusiasts. Alpine isn’t meant for mass sales but for hitting the pleasure buttons. Some will be willing to pay the price.