New Alpine A290: electric hot hatch will be revealed on 13 June

Alpine will reveal the production version of its new A290 electric hot hatch on the sidelines of the Le Mans 24 Hours on 13 June.

Confirmation of the new Alpine's unveil date comes just a few weeks after the debut of the new Renault 5, on which it is based.

Previewed with the A290 Beta concept last year, it will be Alpine's second model line – after the Alpine A110 coupé – and its first electric car. A sporty crossover related to the Renault Mégane E-tech and a pair of larger SUVs will follow, along with an electric successor to the A110 and a four-seat sports car called the A310.

Recently shown in disguise as it underwent cold-weather testing in Sweden, the A290 will kickstart Alpine's push into the mainstream market.

Although the A290 Beta featured an FIA-approved racing chassis and two motors mounted on the front axle, the production car will share the 5’s CMF-BEV platform. Renault has already touted the dynamic potential of the architecture, which mounts the battery pack under the car to lower its centre of mass and improve handling. It also features independent multi-link suspension at the rear.

Alpine has further fettled the platform to ensure it’s playful at low speeds and becomes more stable with acceleration. “The main thing is agility,” design director Antony Villain told Autocar recently. “And we know when we switch to EV, we have heavy batteries, but we want to find exactly the same driving philosophy: agility and pure pleasure.”

To this end, Alpine has added hydraulic bump-stops to the Renault 5’s suspension set-up, improving the A290’s ride and enhancing handling adjustability. Similarly, the torque vectoring on the production car’s single front motor has been set up to simulate a mechanical differential, boosting stability under braking and traction as you accelerate out of a corner.

The A290’s 2530mm wheelbase and wide track – the whole car measures 3990mm long and 1820mm across – make it inherently stable and agile, according to product boss Charlie Biardeau.

He added that A290 uses the same four-piston brakes as the A110, albeit tuned to blend naturally with the regeneration of the production car’s single front motor.

Biardeau explained Alpine is targeting a feeling of “transparency” through the brake pedal, with various strengths of regeneration. These may include a ‘one-pedal’ drive mode, maximising the motor braking so you can drive the car solely on the accelerator pedal – a boon in urban traffic jams.

The A290 will be significantly heavier than the A110 (around 1100kg, depending on specification) due to its battery. Alpine is “finding a new balance for today’s technology”, Biardeau said, adding: “The heritage of Alpine is agility and distinctive ride. It can be through the weight, but it can also be through other features, and EVs also provide you much more torque. It means that [the agility] sometimes isn’t in the figures, but in the feeling you will have – it’s a moving weight.