Alpine previews its everyday EV – a fully electric sports fastback
Inspired by snow, the Alpine A390_β is a sporty crossover concept filled with French flair
by Chris Hall · T3Quick Summary
The Alpine A390_β previews the A390 sports crossover that's expected to go into production in 2025.
It will be Alpine's second all-electric car after the A290 as the company aims for a portfolio of "dream garage" models.
Alpine’s reinvention continues, with plans to expand the French brand’s offering beyond the Alpine A110 to offer a range of electric cars. Previewing its future intentions to launch a car that it describes as “for daily use”, the A390_β is an ambitious outline of what’s to come.
It’s a concept car, yes, but very much lays out expectations for the production car that follows. Seeking inspiration from snow – we’ll leave you to figure out why – this new model sits on the AmpR Medium platform (heavily modified) on which cars such as the Renault Scenic and Nissan Ariya are built.
In Alpine’s numbering strategy, 10 is used for performance (like the A110) and 90 for practicality. Interestingly, Alpine has included an extending section at the rear of the car, which makes the car 80mm longer by extending the rear diffuser and lightbar. This allows the car to move from a short tail to long tail design, which Alpine says will reduce the drag and extend the car’s range, while also looking rather epic.
What’s really exciting about the A390_β is that Alpine says that the exterior design that you see here is 85% true to the production model.
Three motors means one thing: power
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There’s no figure given for speed or range, but at this point with the car in “beta” that probably doesn’t matter. However, Alpine has confirmed that the production model will have three motors, two on the rear axle and one on the front. That means one thing: power.
Alpine won’t be the first to use three motors – the Tesla Model S Plaid famously has a tri-motor arrangement. It’s also in the Audi SQ8 e-tron, Rivian Tri-Max and a couple of other models. Alpine says that it will be using an Active Torque Vectoring system to boost performance on the road and through corners and that suggests that Alpine wants to rival those sorts of sporty models.
While we don’t have any performance details, there’s no shortage of hints at the sporty drive. The steering wheel is inspired by Formula 1, the seats sought inspiration from scanned F1 car seats and there’s a four-point harness for the front seats. There’s also an OV button to instantly give you full power for overtaking – already on the Alpine A290.
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An interior cocoon with Devialet sound
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If you’re a gadget fan you’ll be familiar with Devialet’s dedication to sound and here it brings the soundtrack to the interior – including the Alpine Drive Sound. Alpine says it will be like “travelling in a recording studio”, we’re guessing because the sound is going to be great, rather than there being microphones and wires everywhere.
While the front seats are mostly about F1 vibes, the backseat is described as a “snowy cocoon”, using memory foam for comfort while speakers appear to be encased in ice, but providing the immersive sound system.
Certainly, there’s plenty to be excited about and it will be interesting to see how much of the A390_β makes it into production and how much is dropped. There shouldn’t be too long to wait with this car expected to enter production in 2025.
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