Driving the Alpine A110 R: why the new A390 has a lot to live up to聽
May 28, 2025 by Jamie Edkins
Car changing is a big deal
Alpine has just revealed the new A390 electric car, a 470hp four-door which promises similar thrills to the A110 sports car in a more practical package. We鈥檝e been driving the A110 R to see what this new EV has to live up to.
This is the new Alpine A390 鈥 an alternative to cars like the Cupra Tavascan and Porsche Macan EV 鈥 with a focus on fun. It gets a tri-motor setup with up to 470hp, and the French brand has made some bold claims about the way it drives.
Alpine says it built this car to be 鈥渁s fast and agile as the A110鈥. That鈥檒l take some doing in a car which is around a tonne heavier, but the A390 packs some clever tech to make it happen. We鈥檝e been driving the A110 R to get a sense of what this new EV has to replicate.
Driving the Alpine A110 R: track car thrills for the road
We鈥檝e had a go in the most hardcore Alpine A110 on a closed track. The R is more powerful, lighter, lower and stiffer than the standard car all in the name of racetrack thrills.
Mounted in the middle is a 1.8-litre turbocharged four cylinder engine with 300hp and 340Nm of torque, and this is paired to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox driving the rear wheels. It only weighs 1,104kg, making it around 34kg lighter than the standard A110.
Get this car out on a twisty road and that lightness makes itself immediately apparent. It changes direction like nothing else with number plates, and the steering is almost telepathic. The A110 R handles very well indeed.
It sits 10mm lower to the ground than the standard car, and you also get adjustable suspension so you can set the car up just as you want it. It manages to stay totally flat through the corners without rattling your teeth out over bumps.
That engine is also fabulous. It spins up super quickly, and it has just the right amount of power for this car. It feels quick, but you can still rev it out on the road without facing a driving ban. And the excellent sports exhaust system encourages you to really thrash this car, because it sounds epic and you get plenty of pops and crackles when you let off.
Being such a hardcore sports car, there are some compromises to be made which may make the A110 R tricky to live with as an only car. The carbon fibre bucket seats are great on track, but after a long trip you might find them a bit firm. The four-point racing harnesses could also prove tiresome to do up every time you get in, and the lack of rear window makes parking a challenge.
But if you want an Alpine A110 to live with every day, you can also get a slightly softer GT version which has luxuries like a premium sound system, as well as normal seatbelts. For the ultimate driving experience though, the Alpine A110 R gives even the Porsche 718 Cayman GTS a run for its money.
New Alpine A390 electric car: how will a two-tonne EV drive like a sports car?
Alpine draws a lot of comparisons between the A110 and the new A390, saying it aims to replicate the lightness and agility of that car in this four-door electric hatchback. It鈥檚 likely to be talking about the standard A110 rather than the R, but it鈥檚 still a very tough challenge to set itself.
The A390 weighs around a tonne more than the A110, and it鈥檒l take a lot of clever engineering to hide that additional heft. It鈥檒l also need a lot more power, which it has.
All A390s have three electric motors, and you can choose between 400hp or 470hp outputs. The latter will do 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds, over half a second quicker than the standard A110 and 0.1 of a second less than the A110 R.
But Alpines aren鈥檛 about straight-line speed, they鈥檙e about putting a smile on your face in the corners. The A390 debuts some clever tech to help in that department.
It has two electric motors on the rear axle, one for each wheel, and another one powering the front wheels too. This gives it the handling characteristics of a rear-wheel drive car, and has allowed Alpine to develop a clever torque vectoring system.
When you chuck the A390 into a corner, it鈥檒l send more power to the outer wheel 鈥 helping sling the rear end around and making this massive EV feel more agile. It鈥檚 an active system as well, meaning it can detect your steering angle, as well as any over or understeer and adjust the power accordingly. There鈥檚 even a drift mode if you want to let your inner hooligan out.
We鈥檒l have to wait to drive the car before we can tell you if this clever technology actually works in the real world, but we can tell you that the A390 will be much easier to live with day-to-day than the A110.
It鈥檒l seat five people for starters, and you get a 532-litre boot. That鈥檚 over 40 litres bigger than a Kia EV6, and it鈥檚 around 8 litres shy of the Cupra Tavascan.
Just because it鈥檚 a performance-focused electric car doesn鈥檛 mean Alpine has skimped on range. The A390 will do up to 345 miles on a charge, around 45 miles more than the equivalent dual-motor Cupra Born.
The A390 will go on sale in the UK in November, with first deliveries starting in the first half of 2026. Exact prices haven鈥檛 been confirmed just yet, but you can expect the lower-powered version to start from around 拢60,000.
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