New Alpine A310 to target Porsche 911 with advanced EV tech and multi-model range

Alpine will follow up its new electric A110 sports car with a new 2+2 designed to go head-to-head with the legend that is the Porsche 911. Likely to be called Alpine A310, resurrecting the name of the brand’s seventies coupé, the car will utilise the same advanced APP (Alpine Performance Platform) underpinnings as the smaller A110.

Crucially, Alpine CEO Philippe Krief sees the A310 model range eventually expanding to mirror the broad scope of the 911’s. The larger car will offer four-seater practicality, with the closely related but more focused new A110 sitting below to mirror the role of the Porsche Cayman. 

In an exclusive chat with Auto Express, Krief explained the scale of Alpine’s ambition: “The market for sports cars is roughly 360,000 units worldwide, flat for 20 years now. The Germans, you know, Porsche, BMW M4, they have almost all of it! Of course, Porsche is up there and we are just starting out, but we would like to take a little piece of the cake.”

He continued: “This 2+2, even if it will remain in relatively low numbers, is something a little less exclusive, less extreme than the A110. M4 or 911 are sports cars, but they open it up a little bit because you can have two others in the back and you can travel in a little more space.” 

EV, ICE and AWD: Alpine’s plan for range growth

Following the new electric A110 and its Spyder soft-top derivative in 2027, the rear-wheel-drive Alpine A310 electric coupé is set to launch in 2028 and will also be followed by a Spyder convertible. The versatile APP architecture, however, allows scope for further range expansion beyond that. All-wheel drive and internal combustion powertrains in both mild and plug-in hybrid form are possible and on the radar for Alpine, even if any combustion cars are ultimately focused on markets outside Europe, should Alpine take the decision to enter them. 

“We’re putting a lot into the first car, but already thinking about what will come later,” said Krief. “Rear-wheel drive, that’s for sure, but also a four-wheel-drive version. Some markets that are less mature in the transition to electric power. APP gives us the opportunity to also offer a different powertrain in those markets if needed. So I don’t see it as a risk for the EV strategy. We are targeting exclusivity, and I see it as an opportunity to gain a foothold in other markets or find other kinds of customers.

“With the APP platform, we have to be ready. If there is demand for hybrid, we have the flexibility to react.”

Focus on emotion

The A310 and A110 tag team will also underline Alpine’s commitment to the sports car format at a time when many rival manufacturers are cautious about investing in the sector. Alpine is convinced that the transition to electric power can be achieved without major compromise on the brand’s lightweight, emotional ethos, a conviction that the A290 and A390 EVs would seem to support.  

The current combustion-engined A110 is among the lightest new cars on sale at just over 1,100kg, but the APP platform is designed to allow electric power to be integrated while keeping weight gain to a minimum for that crucial Alpine agility on the road.

In terms of performance, we can expect a significant upgrade from Alpine’s new EV range. The A390 SUV offers up to 474bhp and a giant 810Nm of torque with its tri-motor, all-wheel-drive powertrain, and while this car rides on a modified version of the platform used by Renault in the Megane and Scenic, its clever torque-vectoring motor technology could well make an appearance in the all-wheel-drive A310. 

In a lighter car, the 3.9-second 0-62mph acceleration time of the A390 GTS would be significantly reduced, so something around three seconds could be on the cards from an AWD A310. 

Alpine A310 Ultime        

Alpine has elaborated on its three-spoke range structure, explaining that the ‘10’ suffix indicates focused sports car models dubbed ‘Iconic’, and ‘90’ – as in the A290 hot hatch and A390 coupé-SUV – signifies more mainstream propositions grouped together as ‘Versatility’. 

The third spoke is for special series cars that leverage the brand’s motorsport know-how and is known internally as ‘Exclusive’. These are heavily modified limited production cars offering a new level of performance, such as the Alpine A110 R Ultime. 

This planned range structure opens up intriguing possibilities for Krief and his team to make full use of the technologies they have developed in the pursuit of Alpine’s driver-focused ethos. 

“It would be a series [of cars] where we can put the A110’s platform to work to do extreme things, not just design but using the platform for something special,” he explained.

“I don’t want to offer exactly the same kind of car because it would only be a design exercise. But starting from that base and pushing the boundaries with the powertrain for that lower volume model, that would be feasible, both for electric and ICE. 

“Like we did in the Ultime; we added more power, we changed the gearbox, changed the chassis completely, the aerodynamics. These could be electric cars, could be ICE, could be hybrid. There’s a huge opportunity once you get a new platform and a branch of powertrains.”

As such, the ‘Exclusive’ segment of the Alpine range may eventually be home to hardcore versions of the A310 and A110, possibly with Ultime badging, that could rival Porsche’s track-focused GT and RS model lines. 

Intriguingly, Renault’s extreme and super-limited Renault 5 Turbo 3E hot hatch also uses Alpine’s APP platform. That car integrates electric motors inside the rear wheels for an output of nearly 550bhp. That unique configuration could also be open for use by Alpine in a future that seems full of possibilities.

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