Alpine A390 (2026 – ) Electric review

It might be the biggest and most practical Alpine yet made but the A390 remains an indulgent choice. At the time of testing pricing was yet to be confirmed but likely comparable with key rivals like the more powerful Ioniq 5 N, Kia EV6 GT, Tesla Model Y Performance or others that may be on your shortlist. Like any electric car charging costs will vary greatly according to where you can plug in, a home charger potentially saving you money while topping up on the public network may cost more than petrol or diesel before you even factor in new pay-per-mile taxes for EVs. If you can somehow swing it as a company car there are still savings in Benefit In Kind but, safe to say, the A390 is a car to be bought with the heart rather than the head.

Too early to call it, given the A390 is an all-new car at the time of testing. But it’s built on proven bits shared with various electric Renaults, which generally seem to have shaken off lazy stereotypes of flaky French reliability.

Where some high-performance electric cars prioritise power output over the necessary modifications to brakes, tyres and suspension to put it to the road safely we like the Alpine approach of focusing on handling over outright speed. Which is why it uses three electric motors, one driving the front wheels and one for each of the rear wheels. Long story short, you can responsibly enjoy more of the performance more of the time because the car has been designed from the start to handle it, by people with a genuine love of driving. The rest of the time it’s just a regular electric crossover, with all the safety aids you’d expect, the most annoying of which you can quickly disable with a simple double-tap of the My Safety button. A shame that didn’t stop the somewhat panicky collision warning system from screaming any time a car passed coming the other way, mind.

The A390 does its best to reimagine Alpine’s signature A110 sports car as a five-door crossover, with a sleek, sloping roofline and relatively low-slung stance for a car of this type. For driver and passenger it’s just fine, the figure-hugging sports seats holding you in a comforting embrace if you accept the invitation to explore the car’s formidable cornering capabilities. For more everyday driving the back seat will be acceptable for the kids, though the sloping roof limits headroom for taller folk in the rear and an Ioniq 5 N or Tesla Model Y Performance demands fewer practical compromises in return for your thrills. To those ends we did appreciate the excellent body control, clever suspension technology striking a neat balance between comfort and the composure you need when enjoying twisty roads like the ones we drove it on.

As we write Alpine is still finalising its model line-up for the A390 but, for starters, expect a limited run of fully-loaded Premiere Editions based on the standard GT for those first in the queue. The next step up is to the faster and more powerful GTS. We’ll have to see what comes as standard but, given the likely price, we’ll expect plenty of luxuries, the cars we drove decked out with expensive-feeling microfibre headlining and desirable extras like 21-inch wheels and a very fancy stereo system developed specifically for Alpine by French audiophiles Devialet. Which is absolutely banging. At its core the A390’s infotainment is meanwhile familiar from others in the wider Renault family, with a sizeable digital instrument cluster and vertically mounted, Google-powered display in the middle. We understand the motivation but it’s still annoying this locks out many of your favourite CarPlay features in the name of safety, Siri seemingly unable to come to the rescue on that score. We’ll have to try it with an Android phone to see if the Google operating system is any friendlier to its own team.

There are performance EVs with more pumped-up power outputs and acceleration times. But the Alpine impresses for other reasons. And, let’s face it, the 400 horsepower of the GT and 470 horsepower of the GTS is more than enough while F1-inspired switches on the wheel for overtaking boosts and adjustable regenerative braking add a bit of fun to the commute. We enjoyed the feeling of the clever twin-motor rear axle steering us into the bends, but this demands a level of commitment to jumping on the throttle earlier than you might usually. And trust the system is going to work as advertised. We don’t have any worries on that score and Alpine clearly knows how to make its cars fun to drive but wonder how many people drive like this away from race tracks. If you’ve grown up with sports cars and hot hatches it’s genuinely impressive how Alpine has made this electric crossover drive the same way, though. Even if its talents may be lost on most people. Turning to more practical concerns the hefty battery promises nearly 350 miles of range by Alpine’s claims, though the way we were driving it we’d have needed a top-up after 250. So, measure your expectations accordingly. Apparently, you’ll go a bit further between charges if you choose the smaller of the wheel options, which is worth bearing in mind if range matters more than posing power or outright cornering grip.