Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Revival Of The Hot-Hatch, But It’s Electric… A Weekend In The Brilliantly Fun Alpine A290 GTS
This is us attempting to answer one very simple question; is Alpine's spiciest A290 any good as an EV-hot-hatch?
In all honesty, I have been rather sceptical about driving electric cars pretty much from the get-go. I rarely like how they look, the range and weight issues bothered me a long time, and if I look for something sporty, I want it to make noise, smell a bit and above all, send vibrations up and down my spine. Call me crazy, but the thrill of driving for me is very much a sensory one, well beyond sheer acceleration (the long-claimed EV party-trick). I do understand technology moves fast, so some of the issues are dealt with by now. So, in order to see what I would make of one of the latest sporty EVs, plus to figure out if it is as good as it promises to be, I spent a couple of days in… an Alpine A290 GTS!
The recipe of a hot hatch is as simple as it is brilliant. Take a small, sensible hatchback, spice it up with some sporty exterior bits, mess around with the suspension and give it some extra “get-up-and-go-go-go!!” The blueprint was determined in the 1980s, by cars like the MK1 Volkswagen Golf GTI, the Peugeot 205 GTI and Renault 5 Alpine and GT Turbo, even though the concept of a sporty compact car goes back a bit further than that. Since then, it has been one of the most popular types of performance cars, offering the look and thrill of a bit of extra speed, without going totally crazy.
Over the years, the Hot Hatch was honed and perfected into absolute masterpieces like the MKI Ford Focus RS and MKVII Fiesta ST, the EP3 Civic Type R, the Renault Clio Williams and so on. But as time moved on, the Hot Hatch gradually got a little bigger, a little heavier, was loaded with tech instead of keeping things simple, and above all, bloody expensive! Pair that with the rise of SUVs, Crossovers and EVs, and you get the feeling that in recent years, the Hot Hatch has lost its edge and is on life support. But, and I admit this sounds odd given my scepticism of electric cars, there is hope! Hope, in the form of the brilliantly retro-styled Renault 5, or better yet, the Alpine A290 GTS!
built on a racing legacy
The Alpine A290 GTS is basically nothing more than a pumped-up Renault 5 on paper, although that does oversimplify things. The compact city car has always been a car that Renault excelled at. After all, the original 5 was nicknamed “le Car” back in the day, and it was a very clever and spacious-on-the-inside B-class car. Faster versions existed from pretty early on, with the Alpine/Gordini from the 1970s, and later the GT Turbo and Turbo II. So it makes perfect sense for Renault to trio and recapture that spirit with a heavily modernised 5. And it has, as I literally see them everywhere! And just as before, there is a range of options if you want a little more than just a cool-looking machine.
Enter Alpine, the famous sports-oriented arm of Renault. While it started out as a separate company founded by Jean Rédélé in 1955, Alpine quickly caught Renault’s eye. In part because Rédélé used the Renault cars as a platform for its own sports and race car modifications, and partly because he was just very good at it. So much so that in 1973 Renault bought Alpine outright and merged it into Renault Sport in 1976. Alpine, and later Renault Sport, have won numerous titles in rallying, endurance racing and Formula 1.
In 2017, Renault dusted off the Alpine brand to start building sports cars again. The first product of that revival was a modern-day take on the brilliant Alpine A110 from the 1960s. Praised for its lightweight and nimble handling, the new Alpine A110 delivered what it should. The next revival car would be based on the Renault 5 and is actually co-developed with Renault from the start. Called the A290, there are several performance levels on offer, of which the A290 GTS is the most potent. And luck would have it, that’s exactly the one I got to run around in for a couple of days!
Whizzing around in the A290 GTS
The Alpine A290 shares a lot with the Renault 5; that much is a given. But in a few surprising areas, it shakes things up a little. Some make perfect sense, others are a bit more questionable. Let’s start with how it looks, which I think is just brilliant. My loaner car was finished in the only appropriate Alpine colour I could think of: Blue Alpine Vision. You have a ton of options to make it a bit more “you”, but it doesn’t need all that much to be honest. Details that make the Alpine stand out from the Renault 5 base are wider wheel arches, bulges and indentations in the door and hood shaped like the air intakes on the original 5 GT Turbo II, and various other bits of trim. It looks cohesive, quite cool and from some angles, and pretty mean, despite still being a relatively compact city car at heart.
On the inside, there are plenty of creature comforts. My 2.01m frame was no issue whatsoever, although the seat in the back became pretty much useless to anyone. The seating position is a bit upright as you sit on top of the battery pack, but the seats themselves hug you quite nicely and are very comfy. The steering wheel has a flattened bottom section and is nice and thick. You get things like a heated steering wheel and seats, air conditioning and adaptive cruise control as standard. Bluetooth connectivity and wireless charging are also fitted, so you have all you need, I’d say. And on top of that, which sets the Alpine apart from the Renault, are a bunch of PlayStation-esque gadgets that make the A290 GTS a seriously fun little machine!
There’s an overtake button on the steering wheel that gives you full power instantly (as does the throttle pedal, I know), you have various driving settings that adjust the characteristics of the car, you can get driver coaching on cornering, ‘fuel’ efficiency and so on. And the icing on the cake is what is best described as the Gran Turismo challenges. You can time your zero-to-100kph, you’re G-force under acceleration, breaking and cornering as well as laptimes. Pick whichever you want to do, and you get bronze, silver and gold targets to hit, and more challenges to unlock as you progress. It’s gimmicky for sure, but it makes the A290 GTS a fun little plaything. As long as you do things sensibly, of course…
Then, the driving experience. With 220bhp from the electric drivetrain, the A290 GTS is not blisteringly quick. You hit 100kph in about 6,4 seconds, which is more than plenty to swiftly move through traffic. The top speed is only 170kph, which is quite surprising, but when do you ever have the need and opportunity to go faster than that? And what’s most important, the thing feels absolutely planted when pushed. Even though it’s a front-wheel drive and you get a good dose of torque steer when accelerating hard, it’s very manageable, and above all, engaging! That’s thanks to a revised and tighter suspension system with hydraulic bump stops, which is different from the Renault 5. It gives a reassuring feedback, which I enjoyed very much.
Another thing that adds to the experience is the sound it makes on the inside. Toggling through the settings from mild to ‘wild’ alters the sound to make it a bit sportier and raspy, for lack of a better word. In Sport Mode, and mashing the throttle, you get a louder revving-like sound, and a special animation in your dashboard, like you’ve just launched into hyperdrive. This is all a bit relative, of course, as it’s no performance monster, as I said. And yes, I am aware the sound is very artificial. Still… it adds to the experience.
What do I make of it?
During my days with the Alpine A290 GTS, a few things became very apparent. Yes, I still prefer the sound, vibrations and smells of an internal combustion engine, but the A290 made me forget about it almost entirely. Sure, some things are faked or amplified to increase the driving experience, but I am fine with that. In fact, I think it’s a brilliant little machine that not only looks good, but is boatloads of fun to drive! It’s reassuring, stable, and quite fast in everyday use. You can thrash it around, and it will not give an inch, nor bite your head off.
At around 1,500 kilos, it’s no featherweight, and you feel the weight best when changing direction hard. The range, which is about 340km on a full charge, quickly drops when you start messing about. The adjustable regenerative breaking (the blue knob on the steering wheel) does help a bit, but the range falls a bit short as a daily driver, perhaps. It’s also a touch pricey, as my car came close to EUR 49,000 all-in. Another small complaint is the bulge in the hood. In the Renault 5, it shows the level of charge when plugged in, but in the Alpine, it is just the A-shaped logo. Looks nice, but that charging indicator is a lot more practical, to be honest.
So, what do I make of it in the end? I must admit it won me over, and I really like it. It’s a car that put a big smile on my face every time I took it for a spin. It’s fun to drive, has everything you need and then some, and looks great from the outside as well as the inside. Sure, it has a few quirks, but what car doesn’t? And what mattered to me above all else is the fact that you can use all the power you have at your disposal. Push it, and you’ll find yourself searching for the limit every single time. In that sense, it’s every bit a hot hatch as its illustrious predecessors from the 1980s and 1990s.
For more information, please visit AlpineCars.nl or AlpineCars.com.
Editorial Note: The car was on loan from Alpine Centre Soestdijk, in the Netherlands, for which we thank them. The information used in this article is sourced from Alpine unless stated otherwise. The images of the blue Alpine A290 GTS are our own, with the other images sourced from and used with permission of Alpine unless stated otherwise.
