Renault’s Alpine sports car brand and Lotus have signed a memorandum of understanding, which is set to spawn the joint development of a brand new fully electric sports car of the near future.
Alpine and Lotus seem like a great fit. Both produce lightweight sports cars that focus on pure driving pleasure, so to have them working together on a project, it should turn out an exciting result. Both companies will carry out a feasibility study for the engineering, design and development of the new EV, leveraging the respective expertise of both brands in France and the UK.
The companies also say the partnership will explore the idea of joint services in the area of offering engineering expertise. This includes investigating Alpine’s motorsport platforms covering Formula 1 and Formula E. Phil Popham, CEO at Lotus Cars, said:
“Our companies have much in common – from a pioneering pedigree in light-weighting, to championship-winning sportscars which perform as impressively on the road as they do in the motorsports arena. It is a natural fit in many ways and the co-development of an EV sports car is hugely exciting for our companies, our fans and customers around the world.”
This comes as Renault, owners of Alpine, announce a new business strategy called Renaulution. With the plan Alpine cars, Renault Sport cars, and Renault Sport Racing will be rolled into a lean new separate entity. This cluster will concentrate on exclusive and innovative sports cars. Laurent Rossi, CEO at Alpine, said:
“The signing of this MoU with Lotus shows the lean and smart approach we’re implementing as part of the new Alpine brand strategy. 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.”
No specific details on the EV have been unravelled as yet, but as part of Renault’s strategy it wants to roll out seven new fully electric vehicles by 2025. We suspect the Alpine-Lotus will come at a similar time.
