Heavyweight news, delivered by two of the car world’s lightweight stars. Alpine and Lotus have today confirmed plans to play together in the sandbox of electricity—specifically, to develop a fully-electric sports car. Yep, we’re gonna need a bigger—possibly more lightweight—sandbox.
Shared expertise and facilities
The “memorandum of understanding” signed by both companies will utilize not only long words like “comprehensive feasibility” studies, but also the expertise and, crucially, the facilities of both Alpine and Lotus in bringing to life an electric sports car. Top Gear understands the new car will arrive by 2025, slotting in to replace the Alpine A110 once that car has finished its production run. Expect it to be priced accordingly.
“We will focus on doing an exciting car, and then everything will be fine,” Renault boss Luca de Meo said.
Furthermore, both will explore developing a “joint services offer” that combines both companies’ extensive engineering nous, along with leveraging Alpine’s motorsport platform from Formula 1 to Formula E and even endurance racing.
Alpine boss Laurent Rossi said: “Both brands have an amazing legacy and we are most excited to start this work together, from engineering tailored solutions to developing a next-generation EV sports car.
A particular focus on F1
“We’re putting F1 at the heart of our business, leveraging our in-house expertise and best-in-class partners such as Lotus to inject our cars with leading-edge performance, technology, and motorization.”
Meanwhile, his counterpart over at Lotus—boss Phil Popham—had this to say: “We are proud to have been selected by Groupe Renault in this collaboration.
“Our companies have much in common, from a pioneering pedigree in lightweighting, to championship-winning sports cars which perform as impressively on the road as they do in the motorsports arena.”
While we await further details, a something to ponder: Just how lightweight will an electric sports car be from two companies famous for their lightweighting? Are they about to electrify and motorize a feather? More as we have it…
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
