Alpine A290 (2025 – ) review

An electric car should be cheap to run, especially if you can charge at home or you’re a company car driver. However, the Alpine feels doomed to compare unfavourably with the Renault 5 on which it’s based simply because it’s more powerful and, therefore, less efficient. Charging away from home – particularly at the fastest charging points – will be more expensive and should ideally be avoided to keep bills to a minimum, but even if you do that on long journeys, the A290 will be cheaper to run than any equivalent petrol-powered hot hatch.

French cars are much more reliable than they were in the past and Alpine’s parent company Renault has long experience of building electric cars. Admittedly, they have fewer moving parts than their petrol- and diesel-powered counterparts, so there’s theoretically less to go wrong and we’ve no reason to suspect the A290 will be anything other than robust.

Both the Renault 5 and this Alpine offshoot have plenty of standard safety equipment, including lane departure warning and autonomous emergency braking to stop the car automatically if the driver fails to react to a hazard. Alpine has also included a button to access a custom setting for all the car’s safety systems, so you can configure the technology up exactly the way you want it and enact that with two pushes of the switch. It’s a handy way of dialling back the excesses of some safety systems that are demanded by law but work inconsistently in the real world.

The A290’s cabin is unsurprisingly close to the Renault 5 on which it’s based, but Alpine has added some sporty and upmarket touches. Chief among them are the seats, which are more supportive and get some premium upholstery options. The driving position is good but you do have to watch out for the wide plastic bodywork as you get in and out of the car, given the risk of putting your foot through it or just getting muck on your trouser legs. With five doors access to the back seats is decent as well, and the space back there is just about adequate. There’s a fairly sizeable boot as well but be aware that top-of-the-range examples sacrifice a tiny bit of space to make room for their more upmarket sound system. Whichever A290 you choose, though, you’ll get the same basic suspension set-up, which feels sporty and comfortable all at once. s

Spot the theme but the A290’s interior is basically that of the Renault 5 with some sporty touches, the result as stylish as it is functional. The Google-powered touch-screen, for example, works just like an Android smartphone with all the familiar apps and a responsive and intuitive interface. Navigation comes from Google Maps, which is fully integrated into the car’s systems to display charge status and options along your route for topping up as required. Other apps include a system recording driving data on the circuit and even provides challenges for those who go on track days. Other Alpine-specific flourishes include a button on the steering wheel for adjusting the regenerative braking force of the electric motor, and a drive mode selector to tune the accelerator response to the road conditions. There’s also a special sound that you can turn on and off to make the car feel a little more alive, and a whimsical ‘warp speed’ graphic when you use full power. Admittedly, it feels as though some of these features have come at the cost of ergonomics, with buttons that should be on the wheel instead lurking awkwardly on stalks jutting from the steering column.

Both motor options for the A290 offer more power than the Renault 5, the standard model getting 180 horsepower from a single motor driving the front wheels for perfectly decent pace. The 220 horsepower version is the one you want, though, the acceleration and lively response sufficient to have the steering wheel twitching excitedly in your hands under full power. Objectively that should be a bit of a flaw, but it makes the A290 feel more alive and more engaging. Ditto the suspension, which is really well judged and allows a bit of body movement while inspiring confidence in the car’s capabilities. The same goes for the steering, which is nice and sharp, and the brakes, which are brilliantly powerful and effective. For all the sportiness the A290 is still quiet and comfortable, with excellent refinement even with the boxy shape.