Electric Alpine SUVs to be Lotus-based
Alpine says its new SUVs could be heavily based on Lotus Eletre, rather than using Renault partsAlpine is secretly plotting new all-electric SUVs to rival the mid-size Porsche Macan and larger Cayenne that will be closely related to the upcoming Lotus Type 134 and the Lotus Eletre.
Fresh details of the upcoming compact 2025 Alpine GT X-Over have also emerged after the French car-maker’s boss Laurent Rossi suggested Lotus and parent Geely could help it develop its sports-luxury crossover.
The two new larger SUVs are expected to land in 2027/28, following the battery-powered Alpine R5 hot hatch and the GT X-Over’s launch in 2025.
Rossi confirmed the SUV expansion plans this week as the sports car-maker and Formula 1 team posted its 2022 earnings.
During discussions, Rossi suggested Alpine would look beyond its Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance partners and revealed that he thought that Lotus, and owner Geely, were the “most natural” partners to help it develop rivals for the Macan and Cayenne.
The Lotus connection follows an earlier collaboration to produce the next-generation Alpine A110 replacement that will switch to an all-electric powertrain.
Lotus has already declared it wants to continue using its Electric Premium Architecture that’s derived from the Geely-developed SEA-S platform and underpins the Eletre.
The smaller 2024 Lotus Type 134 is primed to sit on a heavily modified version of Geely’s SEA2 platform that underpins the Smart #1.
Originally, it was presumed that any Alpine SUV would mirror the upcoming GT X-Over and be based on the Renault Group’s CMF-EV architecture.
But Rossi said that wouldn’t be the case.
“The difficulty is Alpine is a different animal. We are creating a slightly different category in terms expected performance for customers,” he said.
Rossi was also careful to rule out both SUVs as being jacked-up sports cars and said the French Macan and Cayenne will live under the car-maker’s new ‘Lifestyle Brand’.
“These are going to be two-tonne, five-metre-long cars. You’re not going to make a sports car, unless you’re Ferrari,” he said, hinting at the new Ferrari Purosangue.
Despite no high-riding A110, Rossi promised the car-maker’s racing pedigree will still influence the two models.
“Handling is made a bit easier at cost with electrification because you can have differentiated torque on each wheel,” he said.
Like the GT X-Over, both SUVs will feature rakish coupe-SUV lines that will focus on style rather than outright practicality.
The motivation to produce another two SUVs after the GT X-Over stems from the brand’s aspiration to make inroads into the North American market, where it plans to sell 150,000 cars per annum by 2030.
Last year Alpine sold just 3545 A110s globally.
It’s not been confirmed where the new SUVs will be built as Alpine currently only has limited manufacturing capability at its Dieppe plant that from 2024 will be reconfigured to build the GT X-Over.
Related: New details of all-electric Alpine GT X-Over released
Related: Rally-ready Alpine A110 SportsX unleashed
Related: Alpine A110 2019 Review
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