ENSTONE, England — The centerpiece of Alpine’s future sports activities automobile technique is its personal APP platform, a bonded-aluminum chassis that may settle for a wide range of battery and electrical motor configurations — in addition to an inner combustion engine.
Alpine, Renault Group’s sports activities and racing model, not too long ago revealed that APP (quick for Alpine Efficiency Platform) would underpin the subsequent A110 sports activities coupe (due by 2027), a cabriolet model, the A310 2+2 coupe and different unidentified future fashions. A beforehand introduced collaboration with Lotus has been disbanded.
Alpine and Renault executives stated that it was the E-Ternite (“Eternity”) idea — a full-electric model of the present A110 introduced in July 2022 — that satisfied them they already had the experience to affect the model with out an outdoor associate.
Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo instructed buyers and journalists at an occasion at Alpine’s System One middle right here it was essential that Alpine “not lose management” of the platform as a result of it’s so central to the model’s identification and creates worth. “We realized we needed to produce [Alpine models] at our tempo and on our platform,” he stated.
The E-Ternite was based mostly on the A110’s aluminum platform and used off-the-shelf Renault Group electrical parts. It was capable of obtain efficiency and driving dynamics similar to the internal-combustion A110, which is powered by a 1.8-liter gasoline engine that delivers about 250 hp, executives stated.
“It was not only a one-off idea. We rapidly realized it was way more than that,” Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi stated. “It’s truly the important thing to our future, the cornerstone of our lineup.”
APP can have an 800-volt electrical structure, Rossi stated, however it may additionally settle for different drivetrains, together with doubtlessly a hydrogen-powered combustion engine for “extremely excessive efficiency” purposes. It’s 200 kg lighter than opponents’ platforms, Rossi stated, to present the A110 “superb lightness and agility.”
It may be lengthened by as much as 420 mm and the monitor widened by 80 mm, Alpine stated.
The battery configuration can be versatile. The following A110 can have a big battery behind the seats and a smaller one in entrance of the dashboard, whereas the A310 can have a battery beneath the ground in addition to behind the seats, and a second motor within the entrance for all-wheel drive.
Future fashions might embrace four-door vehicles or a crossover with bigger wheels, Alpine stated.
Automobiles constructed on the platform could be from 4300 to 4850 mm lengthy, with a peak of 1300 to 1550 mm. Energy output for deliberate fashions ranges from 250 to 500 kilowatts; battery measurement is deliberate to be 77 to 100 kilowatt hours.
APP-based vehicles will probably be constructed at Renault’s small manufacturing facility in Dieppe, northern France. The manufacturing facility has about 350 employees with a most output of about 6,000 vehicles yearly; Alpine expects to promote about 4,200 A110s this yr.
De Meo stated the Dieppe manufacturing facility would proceed to run “flat out” to provide the A110 and future APP-based fashions however didn’t touch upon different potential websites. He additionally wouldn’t touch upon potential volumes for the platform, though Alpine executives have projected complete gross sales in extra of 100,000 yearly by 2030.
One future potential competitor for the electrical A110 is the subsequent Porsche 718, due in 2025 a full-electric mannequin that will probably be underpinned by Volkswagen Group’s Premium Platform Electrical (PPE).
Porsche is planning a 800-volt structure for PPE; like Alpine’s platform, it’s scalable: from small to midsize vehicles, with variable monitor width, floor clearance and wheelbases. PPE fashions can have the battery packs beneath the ground, with an introduced most energy of 475 kW and battery measurement of as much as 100 kWh.
Along with future 718 fashions, PPE will underpin the subsequent Porsche Macan SUV.