[Auto] Renault's Sporty Alpine Brand Eyeing All-Electric U.S. Launch by 2028

[Mr.Hacker]

 

Renault CEO Luca de Meo has confirmed the company is looking to make a return to the United States, most probably with its sporty sub-brand Alpine, and possibly by 2027 or 2028. De Meo says Alpine, which last week revealed an exciting electric hot-hatch concept, the A290_ß, the production version of which will share its platform with the recently announced Renault 5 EV, already has Tiguan-sized EV crossover under development for launch in 2025 and is contemplating two even bigger EVs for the U.S. market.

"The U.S. is an opportunity we will be looking at," de Meo told the Financial Times Future of the Car summit in London, "and if we find an opportunity it will probably be with the Alpine brand." Why Alpine? Renault exited the U.S. in 1987 after selling AMC to Chrysler—though Renault engineer François Castaing stayed in Detroit to famously engineer the Jeep Cherokee and the Chrysler LH cars, among many others—and Alpine is perhaps better known to Americans because of its presence in Formula 1.

 

 

Significantly, de Meo acknowledges that both the A290_ß, which will launch in Europe in 2024, and the larger EV crossover coming in 2025 are both too small to attract enough buyers in the U.S. "We are looking at bigger cars because we need them to get access to richer markets," he says. These bigger Alpine EVs would be a coupe and an SUV, says de Meo, each roughly the size of a C-Class or E-Class Mercedes-Benz and scheduled to appear in 2027 or 2028.

 

https://www.motortrend.com/news/renault-alpine-ev-coupe-suv-2028-future-cars/