New Alpine A110 limited-edition selling fast

The Alpine A110 coupe has been officially launched in Australia and despite the compact French sports car's near-$100,000-plus starting price and relatively unknown pedigree Down Under, the entire first shipment is already spoken for.

And of the 60 Alpine A110 Australian Premiere editions to become available here -- each priced at $106,500 plus on-road costs -- more than half have already been sold.

"There's huge demand for it," said Renault Australia managing director Andrew Moore during the vehicle's Aussie unveiling at the Motorclassica car show in Melbourne today.

"When you're talking about a new brand, we’re very pleased to have 32 vehicles sold.

"We've got 30 cars just landed here, so sadly two or three customers miss out on the first delivery, but there's another ship arriving in December, so I expect the rest will delivered in January 2019."

Hand-built on the same production line as parent company Renault's Megane RS in Dieppe, France, the Alpine A110 is powered by the same 1.8-litre engine as the red-hot Megane.

But because it's feather-light at 1060kg, it's considerably quicker than both the Megane RS and its most direct rival, the entry-level Porsche Cayman (priced from $114,900), with a claimed 0-100km/h time of just 4.5 seconds.

The Alpine A110 packs a mid-mounted 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine (185kW/320Nm) that drives the rear wheels through its seven-speed Getrag dual-clutch automatic transmission with launch control.

Once the rest of the initial batch of Alpine A110 Premiere editions have been sold, the French brand will release the entry-level Pure variant ($97,000 plus ORCs) and the Legende version ($103,500 plus ORCs).

However, no more than 100 vehicles will be sold in Australia per year -- not just because of limited supplies from France but as part of a local motor industry agreement not to sell new vehicles without side airbags in large numbers.

Moore said the airbag-related sales restriction was not due to Australian Design Rules (ADRs) but a Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) arrangement.

"It's not an ADR issue," he said. "It's an FCAI voluntary code that says that if the vehicles don't have side airbags we won't sell over 100 units.

"It's not a law, it’s a voluntary code. I can't get more than 100 cars [annually] anyway. But if I could get 200 cars a year, I'd still stick to the code. We're part of the FCAI," he said.

The reason for the A110's lack of side airbags is not due to the fitment of hard-core Sabelt racing seats but in order to reduce weight, said Moore.

"No, it’s the way they’ve done it to have the lightweight set-up, and they made a decision not to put them in."

"We have Pure and Legende variants that we're ordering for 2019 that will come throughout the year, with more cars coming in around March, and we'll have around another 100 vehicles coming in 2019," he said.

The Renault Australia chief said that high global demand for the first new Alpine model in decades resulted in some European customers waiting for more than a year.

"At the moment there's 6000 back-orders in Europe. So my biggest concern is more about supply than demand. I've committed to 100 units for next year, but in the auto game you can get a commitment for product and it's not always a lock.

"We won't get more -- there's no way we can get more.

"Basically, the 6000 back-orders means most of those customers [in Europe] will not see a car for another 12 months. So we're pretty fortunate that at this stage."

Moore said the lack of side airbags has not put buyers off the fast French sports car.

"It's 1060kg. It's made to be lightweight and agile as per the original car. It's a purist's vehicle and a lot of decisions around the vehicle have been made around the heritage and purity."