The Renault-owned performance brand Alpine is getting ready for an all-electric future, and at next week’s Paris Motor Show, Alpenglow will debut a new concept.
The Alpine Alpenglow is referred to as “the starting point for all future Alpine designs, technology, and breakthroughs” and has the appearance of a Le Mans sports prototype racer. In practice, that will probably mean more for Alpine’s plans to create a replacement for the present A110 than it will for the widely anticipated Renault 5 EV variants and an unidentified SUV.
The concept is nearly five meters long, two meters broad, but only one meter tall, which is another evidence that track vehicles were the inspiration for it. According to Alpine, the A220 Alpine racer from the 1960s is referenced by the aircraft’s long, thin wings. The exhibition car, which likewise has a single seat, places the driver between two hydrogen tanks at high pressure (700 bar) in the middle of the car.
According to Alpine, the powertrain selection reflects the company’s conviction that it should be researching options other than standard EV motor power for its future models. The company claims that a hydrogen-powered hybrid combustion engine is “environmentally friendly and comes with the inimitable driving pleasure that this technology provides”; however, other than mentioning the location of the hydrogen’s storage in the Alpenglow, it offers no other information regarding the engine, hybrid system, or any power outputs or performance figures.
