Seven new cars in seven years: Alpine becomes Renault’s luxury brand

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Groupe Renault is repositioning itself. CEO Luca de Meo (56) recently announced the creation of a software development subsidiary called Ampere. Now brands are repositioning: Dacia is interested in cheap cars, expected to be electrified late and reduce emissions by then thanks to synthetic e-fuels. As an all-electric core brand, Renault covers the most important segments. and Alpine?

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds (46) has bought the Formula 1 team of his sports subsidiary in Dieppe, northern France, for 200 million francs. At the same time, de Meo wants to transform the brand, which was founded 68 years ago, into a luxury department with seven new models in seven years by 2030! Alpine should then contribute eight billion Swiss francs per year with a margin of ten percent to the global group result. Do you have sales targets? “I never talk about quantities,” De Meo says. The only thing that matters is profitability.

Alpine could mimic Cupra

The first model in 2024 will be the A290 – Alpine models are always female – recently introduced as a study: It’s the sports version of Renault’s R5 small electric car, due to launch next year. A year later, a crossover called the GT followed, and in 2026 the successor to the existing internal combustion engine Alpine A110 as a coupe and roadster. A four-seater sports car called the A310 was also tuned, according to De Meo. All stylish and electric. However, only light graphics of the seven models were still visible.

In addition to electric drives, Alpine also relies on hydrogen as a fuel for internal combustion engines, which can be used not only in fuel cells but also in motorsports. “Race cars have to make noise,” De Meo says with a grin. But their plans sound like a lot of work. For 2023, Alpine expects record sales of the currently single A110: 4200 – nothing compared to what de Meo has planned. It makes sense that he wants to place his group in the profitable luxury segment as well. And, as de Meo admits, Alpine must decide now, as Renault’s attempts on models like Safrane (1992), Avantime (2001) or Vel Satis (2002) have generally failed.

After all, the CEO had done something similar before: De Meo created a new brand from the ground up with Cupra during his time as Seat boss (2015-2020), which long surpassed the main Seat in terms of image and sold 300,000 cars a year. years Maybe this will work with Alpine as well.

Source: Blick