Radical new Alpine Alpenglow sheds light on brand's future

By James Attwood

11 Oct 2022

This is the dramatic new Alpine Alpenglow concept, which showcases how Renault’s performance brand will be reinvented in its zero-emission future – both on the road and track.

With styling inspired by Le Mans 24 Hours-style endurance prototypes and a high-performance hydrogen-combustion powertrain, the Alpenglow doesn’t strictly preview a future production model. Instead the single-seater is described as "the starting point for all future Alpine car designs, technologies and breakthroughs".

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The French brand was revived in 2018 with the petrol-powered Alpine A110 two-seater sports car, and now runs all Group Renault’s motorsport projects such as its F1 team. The road car arm of Alpine is currently being reinvented as an electric performance marque with a three-car line-up: a hot hatch Alpine R5 version of the forthcoming Renault 5, the Alpine GT X-Over crossover and a new A110 successor, built on a new electric sports car platform being co-developed with Lotus.

The Alpenglow is a track-focused proposition, designed to reinforce the link between Alpine’s Formula 1 and sports car projects and its future zero-emission road cars.

As with a previously shown student-desgined concept car called the A4810, the Alpenglow uses what the firm calls a “hybrid hydrogen internal-combustion engine”. That means it mixes a hydrogen combustion powertrain – as seen on the Toyota GR Yaris H2, boosted by an electric motor.

Alpine says the powertrain "releases practically nothing but steam”, and could allow for combustion power to continue in years to come, especially if using so-called ‘green’ hydrogen. However, due to the high cost of hydrogen production, it would most likely be used in motorsport projects rather than at mass production road car scale, where battery electric cars are set to dominate.

No performance details of the Alpenglow have been revealed.

The styling of the Alpenglow is clearly inspired by motorsport. It’s a lightweight focused design, with the hydrogen stored in two 700-bar cylindrical tanks that are located either side of the driver. Alpine says the machine weighs around 1000-1200kg, and has been built with extensive use of recycled carbon.

Where the Alpenglow really previews the brand’s future electric road car models are the design details, particularly the full-width front light bar and stacked rear brake lights. This will be used on all future production cars, as will the racing-inspired steering wheel.

The aerodynamic-honed body has resulted in a V-shaped front end that features huge air channels down either side. It is very low, sitting just one more off the ground, and has an active rear wing.

As well as its future road cars, Alpine is working on an LMDh racing prototype to run at Le Mans, and that will likely be inspired by the Alpenglow.