New Alpine A390 beats the Porsche Macan Electric on price

Pricing for the new A390 - the second pure-electric car from Alpine – has just been announced.

Three versions will be on sale very soon with first customer deliveries expected by spring. Kicking off the range is the £61,390 GT, followed by the £65,390 Premiere Edition and the flagship £69,390 GTS.

This makes the Alpine A390 noticeably cheaper than its closest competitor, the Porsche Macan Electric, which is priced from £68,600 to £97,500. The A390 is a little more expensive than the BMW iX3 and the new electric Mercedes GLC, but in true Alpine fashion, it’s claimed to be a much more driver-focused option than those two SUVs. 

The A390 joins the Renault 5-based A290 GTS as Alpine expands its electric line-up and the hot hatchback is available brand new on the Auto Express Buy A Car service with discounts of almost £5,000. 

Alpine A390: pricing and specifications

The entry-level A390 GT comes with 20-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin Sport EV tyres, adaptive headlights with LED matrix technology, a body-coloured roof, electric bootlid and an 11kW onboard charger with V2L (vehicle-to-load) capability. 

As standard, every A390 gets the same combination of a 12.3-inch driver’s display and 12-inch central touchscreen - the same set up as the Renault Scenic E-Tech. But the A390 has an Alpine-specific infotainment system with lap-timers and a G-force readout, along with other bespoke elements such as the sports steering wheel and Sabelt bucket seats. Other standard-fit features include a 13-speaker sound system, wireless smartphone connectivity, a heated steering wheel and dual-zone climate control.

The mid-range Premiere Edition adds a unique set of 20-inch rims and has blue-painted brake calipers, a French flag on the rear pillar, electric-adjustable sport seats with massage function and hands-free parking assist. The onboard charger gets upgraded to a 22kW three-phase cable too, while a black roof is a £1,000 option. 

Finally the GTS comes with 21-inch wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, red brake calipers, black Alcantara headlining and an uprated sound system. 

Six exterior colours are offered, including blue, black, silver, dark blue, Alpine’s ‘Bleu Vision’ launch colour and a matte grey, which is only available on GT and GTS trims. 

Alpine A390: Powertrains and performance

All versions of the A390 come with a triple-motor set-up (two at the rear and one up front); the GT and Premiere Edition have 395bhp and 661Nm of torque, while the range-topping GTS gets 464bhp and 824Nm. As a result, the GT and Premiere Edition will do 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds, while the GTS completes the same sprint in 3.9 seconds – which is faster than a Porsche Macan 4S. The GT and Premiere Edition top out at 124mph while the GTS goes on to 137mph. 

Weighing in at 2,124kg (or 3kg less in GTS trim), the A390 is over 1,000kg heavier than the A110 coupe. Even with the two cars sitting in distinct market segments, that’s a big jump. Alpine has fitted huge six-piston brake calipers as standard and during our extensive tests of the GTS and GT, we experienced a very strong brake-regeneration system too. 

But it’s the trick tech that Alpine is making a big song and dance about, boldly referring to the A390 as a “true five-seat sports car”. It says it’s ensured that the electric SUV can deliver the level of performance and sharpness customers will expect from the brand, which until now has focused on sports cars and hot hatches.

There are five drive modes in the A390, with its Track setting dedicated to “more sporting endeavour” – which is an eloquent way of saying ‘giving it the beans’. On top of this, the 'Alpine Drive Sound’ system delivers two unique soundtracks to enhance the driving experience, but without trying to replicate the exhaust note of the A110’s petrol engine. Alpine said Hyundai Ioniq 5 N-style fake gearchanges feel “too artificial”, so it hasn’t developed an equivalent system for its new SUV. 

The A390 claims a near-perfect 49:51 front-rear weight distribution, with a low centre of gravity helped by the floor-mounted battery pack. It also gets an Alpine-developed passive suspension system, but there’s no four-wheel steering, because the firm is focusing on making the SUV feel as driver-focused as possible. 

Every A390 does get Alpine’s clever torque vectoring system, though. We found it to be sharper and more responsive than similar systems from Polestar and Porsche when we tested the A390 in GT and GTS guise. Alpine says it benchmarked the A390’s cornering behaviour against the A110 “to ensure a driving experience centred on feel rather than software”. 

CEO Philippe Krief said: “The A390 is the quintessential Alpine, combining sportiness and performance with technology and refinement, all for a unique driving experience that is equally suited to everyday use and more spirited driving.”

Alpine A390: range and charging 

Under the metal, the new A390 sits on a heavily reworked version of the Renault Group’s AmpR Medium platform – already used by models such as the Renault Scenic and Nissan Ariya. The Alpine measures 4,615mm long, 1,885mm wide (excluding mirrors) and 1,532mm tall – making it slightly smaller than the Macan in every dimension. Alpine also considers top-end Cupra Tavascan, Ford Capri and Kia EV6 models as potential rivals.

Unlike some of those cars, the A390’s focus is very much on performance rather than efficiency. However, at launch, every version will get an 89kWh battery with the less powerful A390s offering a fairly competitive 341 miles of range, while that figure drops to 312 miles on the hottest GTS. All models get 190kW DC rapid charging, allowing for a 15 to 80 per cent charge in less than 25 minutes. 

Alpine A390: design 

The production-ready A390 has been a long time in the making, and was previewed in 2024 by the bold A390_ß concept. Visually, there are plenty of similarities between the two; the full-width lightbar and slim daytime running lights are almost unchanged, and while the slashes, slots, and vents have been made more production-friendly, the sharply styled base car remains.

For the production car, Alpine has fitted a number plate and switched out the illuminated lettering on the nose for a more conventional black badge. Plus, there’s a new set of headlights incorporated within the bumper, too; the concept did without these.

To the side, the alloy wheel design on the car you see here differs only slightly from the concept, while the cladding that runs along the sills is all but identical. Alpine has kept the surfacing by fitting flush front door handles, and the rear handles are hidden in the C-pillar. The steeply raked screen and roof-hinged tailgate hide a 532-litre boot – almost on a par with the Porsche’s 540 litres.

The overall silhouette is still recognisable, with that sweeping fastback most notable when viewing the car in profile. Alpine refers to the A390 as a “racing car in a suit”, and while the jacked-up stance may argue otherwise, the facts and figures aim to speak for themselves.

One of seven new Alpines on the way

As with Alpine’s other models, the A390 follows a simple naming convention of the letter A followed by three numbers. The first digit refers to the coupe-SUV’s size, compared with the Alpine A290 hot hatch, for instance, while 90 denotes this is one of the brand’s more versatile, everyday models. 

The A390 will be the next addition to Alpine’s “dream garage” of seven brand-new pure-electric cars that it’s hoping to complete by 2030, and has started to become a reality following the launch of the A290.

Two more SUVs are scheduled to be launched in 2027 and 2028, the largest of which should rival the Porsche Cayenne. Also on the way is the next iteration of the Alpine A110 sports car, which is due to be revealed in 2026 - followed by a roadster version and a four-seat sports coupé that will bring back the Alpine A310 name from the seventies and eighties. 

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