Lotus and Alpine call off sports car joint-venture
A match seemingly made in heaven reportedly won’t yield a co-developed electric sports car after allLotus and Alpine, two heavyweights of the lightweight sports car world, have reportedly cancelled the partnership that was supposed to yield a pair of co-developed electric performance vehicles roughly mid-decade.
The intel comes from Automotive News Europe, which cites Lotus as saying the car-makers had split “amicably” and canned the shared project as part of a “mutual” decision, without ruling out future collaborations between the British and French brands.
“We have decided not to progress with the joint development of a sports car for Alpine,” Lotus told Automotive News in an emailed statement.
“We have built a strong relationship between the two companies and will continue to discuss other opportunities.”
When it was first announced in 2021, the high-profile partnership between the iconic sports car brands was met with huge excitement from their respective fanbases and the auto
industry alike, given the potential for a pair of fun, fast and engaging new driving machines.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was originally for the mutual “study a number of areas of cooperation, including the joint development of an EV sports car”, but individual paths were apparently deemed more viable for each party.
A separate overseas report published late last week claimed Renault was considering using its own technology to develop future Alpine products in-house as opposed to working with Lotus, however, the French manufacturer reportedly declined ANE’s request for comment.
Global CEO Laurent Rossi previously described Lotus and its parent company Geely as the “most natural” partners for helping it develop a pair of Porsche-fighting electric SUVs destined to rival the eventual Macan and Cayenne EVs.
Lotus is understood to be persevering with its EV sports car following Alpine’s exit, which makes sense given it was heading up development anyway, but the famous marque is yet to announce a concrete timeline for the project.
Previous coverage suggested the finished product would be ready by 2027, which would mean the first electric Lotus sports car will enter global markets a year or two after the next-gen Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman, both of which will be available with traditional boxer engines and, for the first time, battery-electric powertrains.
Related: Electric Alpine SUVs to be Lotus-based
Related: Lotus and Alpine to co-develop EV sports car
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