"In the first six months of 2026 we will share some really exciting news.” Those are the words of Alpine's chief executive, Philippe Krief, and he's talking about the all-new, all-electric Alpine A110 sports car.
Do we know what the new A110 will be like, yet?
No, we don't, and Alpine's plans are still a closely guarded secret, but the boss of the French sports car maker - part of Renault Group, of course - said that we'll see something of the new electric A110 before the summer holidays in 2026, which is genuinely exciting news.
How can Alpine make an electric A110 as good as the current car?
Well, that's the big question, but Krief made his comments in a video which wraps up Alpine's 70th anniversary year with the A110 R Ultime, a hardcore version of the existing petrol-powered A110. Only 110 of those will be made, appropriately, and the Ultime comes with a track-focused aero makeover which extends to a Le Mans-style fin on the rear engine cover and tiny, aggressive 'winglets' on the front wheelarches.
In amid all the newness, though, Krief reminded us that Alpine is still following the tenets of the company's founder, Jean Redele. "With the Alpine A110 R Ultime, we wanted to create a grand finale, worthy of the second generation A110”, said Krief. "The original A110 Belinette is for me, in my head, one of the historical benchmarks of fun-to-drive. I think Jean Redele would have been really proud of the Ultime, because it's really performants.”
Will the Ultime inform the new A110?
It seems so. Although the Ultime is a track-day special, the underlying philosophy behind it was to maximise the power-to-weight ratio, so while the new A110 electric is clearly going to be heavier than the current petrol model - batteries are just heavy things - a boost in power from a compact electric motor might help to balance some of that out.
What else is feeding into the development of the new A110?
In its end-of-year wrap-up, Alpine was also showing off some other projects, which will have a bearing on the next-generation A110. For a start, the brand is getting back into rallying, taking the electric A290 hot-hatch out onto special stages, and motorsports experience from that could well feed back into the new A110. Axel Plasse, VP of Hypertech Alpine, points out in the video how much alike the new electric A290 and its spiritual predecessor, the Renault Alpine 5 rally car. If those two can be alike, why not the A110 and its electric successor?
Speaking of motorsports experience, Alpine's F1 driver, Pierre Gasly, also popped up in the video to mention that he's ordered the new A390 electric crossover as his personal car (and was also shown taking French footballing star Zinedine Zidane through a slalom course in the A390) and doubtless Gasly's experience and deft touch behind the wheel will also be useful when creating the new electric sports car.