Renault plotting three-car Alpine family

Renault is planning a three-model Alpine family that could include an SUV based on the freshly minted Nissan Gripz concept and aimed squarely at China and the US.

Just days after Alpine CEO Bernard Ollivier said the future of further Alpine models depended on the success of the initial A110-style compact coupe that will launch the brand globally in 2017, a senior Renault executive told motoring.com.au that Alpine's product and market plan would be decided by early next year.

"It's a clear positioning: sporty premium car with all the DNA of Alpine which is basically a mix of [light] weight and power of the engine, with agility and what made fans for the Alpine at the time it was on the road," said Jerome Stoll, Executive Vice President, Chief Performance Officer, Sales & Marketing at the Frankfurt motor show.

"But not only to develop one car but to develop a range, so we have three cars in mind, not only for Europe but also for the rest of the world.

"We're contemplating China, maybe the United States. So everything for the time being is on paper. [A] decision is to be taken earlier next year – what will be the future product strategy and the market strategy."

Asked if an SUV – the vehicle widely tipped to become the born-again French brand's second model – would dilute Alpine's DNA, Stoll said: "Maybe. I don't think so.

"I think we have to restart the brand with the DNA of Alpine, which is the Berlinette. It will be an updated Berlinette, if I may say. It will be a good [coupling] of power and weight.

"Actually I drove a prototype of this car and frankly it's amazing. I'm not a specialist but I have plenty of fun with my poor driving and then I was driven by a professional pilot and I have plenty of other fun, you know.

"So what makes this car fun and attractive is that whatever your level of driving professionalism you can get fun."

Stoll said the vehicle he drove was a paddle shift automatic. The historic Alpine factory in Dieppe will be ready to commence production of the new model by the end of this year on the same line as the Clio RS, with right-hand drive production for markets including Australia to begin almost simultaneously.

Separately, Renault group design boss Laurens van den Acker told motoring.com.au that the design of the Alpine coupe was signed off and remained "lovingly close" to the Alpine Celebration show car revealed at Le Mans in June .

Later in the same interview, Stoll said Renault was considering a hybrid version of a separate potential Alpine model that would be based on a Nissan platform, which could be the Gripz coupe-crossover revealed at Frankfurt.

"There might be hybrid on some models of Alpine — there might be — but for the time being the platform is separate.
We'll see whether we're going to use some of this kind of hybrid technology," he said.

"Everything is conditional. [But] There might be a hybrid version of one model of Alpine that is specifically developed on a common platform with Nissan."

Stoll ruled out the introduction of the Renault brand to the US, but said Alpine vehicles could be sold through either Nissan or Infiniti retail channels.

"We're not alone in the US. We may use our friends," he said.

"What we're looking at is exactly in the different places where Nissan is and Infiniti is, where we can minimise the distribution costs because it makes common sense.

"We are in the [Renault-Nissan] alliance, so it makes sense to have this product next to the other one. It will be separate anyway from the other one to increase the showroom traffic."