New Alpine A290 GTS 2025 review: a fun and engaging electric hot hatch

Verdict

Our first UK encounter with a left-hand-drive model has given us enough evidence to confirm that the Alpine A290 is a fun, engaging driver’s car like few other electric cars at any price. It feels fast, sophisticated and extremely capable on a twisty road, and thanks to its gorgeous looks inside and out, every drive feels like a special occasion. However, there’s no getting past the fact that you’ll need to pay for the privilege, and real-world efficiency doesn’t look great. If you’re a driving enthusiast looking for an engaging, exciting electric daily driver to sit alongside a proper performance car in your garage, then the A290 is hard to beat.

This is the A290, Alpine’s second model for the modern era. Based on its first, there’s an awful lot to live up to. 

The A110 is a sublime coupé, which offers a feeling of purity and driving thrills like few other cars on sale today. It’s no surprise, then, that Alpine is keen to stress that this newcomer aims to recapture that DNA.  

However, that’s much easier said than done, given that the A110 is a lightweight mid-engined petrol coupé, and the A290 is a fully electric fast hatchback.

With two of the A110’s greatest attributes – its suppleness and feedback – coming into their own on Britain’s bumpy, twisty roads, there’s no better place to see if the A290 can continue the Alpine success story. That’s why we jumped at the chance to sample a French-registered, left-hand-drive A290 here in the UK to see what it’s all about. And while our drive was fairly brief, it turned out that there was an awful lot to like – but one or two compromises, too.

No doubt helping Alpine’s cause from the outset is that the A290 comes from great stock, because it’s closely related to the Renault 5, a brilliant car in its own right. Look beyond the head-turning design – which is even beefier than the 5 thanks to flared arches enclosing 19-inch wheels (wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres as opposed to rubber with any eco bias), and adds cross-shaped headlight signatures and many, many Alpine badges – and it’s clear that there has been a fairly significant engineering of the car under the skin. 

22

Although it shares its 52kWh battery with the 5, there’s a bump in power. While the Renault is available with up to 148bhp, here there are 178bhp and 217bhp options available – the latter of which we drove. 

Alpine is pushing the lightweight ethos first seen on the A110, and whether you think the A290 is light or not depends on perspective. At 1,554kg, it’s definitely fleet of foot for an EV, but by hot hatchback standards, it’s in VW Golf R territory – a car that resides in a size class above, with four-wheel drive and about 50 per cent more power. 

However, the numbers aren’t the key thing – feel is the priority. To this end, Alpine has completely redesigned the front suspension. A new subframe enables completely revised geometry and a 60mm increase in track width. The dampers include hydraulic bump stops, which has allowed Alpine to wind back the suspension stiffness while still avoiding any clumsy body control as the springs reach the end of their travel.

Move off from a standstill, and there’s wonderful progression to all of the main controls. The throttle response builds naturally as you squeeze the pedal, and the steering feels light, yet much more precise, than even the 5’s own responsive rack. There’s definitely a firmness to the ride, but impressive levels of sophistication to go with it. Indeed, while swapping between the A290 and the Skoda Superb long term test car being run by our Senior Photographer Pete Gibson, it was clear that at low speeds it actually fidgeted less over small bumps than the Czech model, despite the overall stiffness of the set-up.

And things still feel great as the speed increases. That composure remains, allowing the A290 to carry serious pace along a country road. Straight-line speed is good, if not mindblowing, in a world of overly powerful electric alternatives; 0-62mph takes 6.4 seconds. The fun lies more in maintaining momentum and exploiting a huge amount of grip. 

It gets better the harder you push it. At moderate speeds, the relative lack of body roll means that you can’t fully appreciate what it’s capable of, but lean on its chassis more and it reveals a playful chassis with a nose that’s keen to dive for an apex – even more so with a mid-corner lift. The brakes are powerful, and thanks to a small rotary dial on the steering wheel, it’s easy to adjust the level of motor regeneration on the fly.

22

We found that the throttle had slightly less desirable effects on corner exit, though. On the damp roads of our test drive, we struggled to find too much evidence of the electronic limited-slip differential that should send power to the wheel with the most grip. Get greedy with the throttle, and you can light up the front tyres, causing the front end to push wide. 

In a straight line, a little torque steer revealed itself, too. Some will find metering out the throttle precisely in a car like this rewarding; others might just consider it a bit irritating. We were hoping for the diff to behave more like the mechanical set-up in previous RenaultSport stars like the Mégane RS Trophy R, as that uncanny slingshot effect would make the A290 even more thrilling. 

As with the 5 on which the A290 is based, the cabin is fantastic. Alpine has put its own touch on the Renault layout, with dark blue textured leather-effect on the dash, doors and seats. While another electric sporty hatch, the Abarth 500e, has an undeniable sense of occasion, it can’t match the Alpine’s quality of finish. The three gear selection buttons in a redesigned centre console mimic those of the A110 (ditching the 5’s slightly fiddly column stalk in the process), but thirsty drivers might rue the lack of a cup-holder. 

That’s only a minor gripe though, compared to the two main drawbacks that hold the A290 back from greatness. The first is the range. During our time behind the wheel, the Alpine was promising a range of around 150 miles. Yes, it was quite cold during our time behind the wheel, and yes, we were also driving a little more enthusiastically than one would on an average day, but we can understand if that figure might put off some prospective buyers. Of course, if you’re looking for an engaging second car to sit alongside a more serious petrol-powered performance machine, this might not be an issue.

Then there’s the price. The 178bhp model kicks off from £33,500, and the least expensive 217bhp option starts from £36,000. Anyone who gets what the A290 is about might think those figures will be worth it, but in the context of a small, sporty supermini, that’s a lot of cash – especially when the base Renault 5 starts from a fiver under 23 grand.