French automaker Renault is looking to investors, including China’s Geely, to funnel some cash into its Alpine racing and sports car brand. Alpine, best known for its A110 sports coupe, is looking to reinvent itself as an all-around player in the EV space with a line of all-electric hatchbacks, SUVs, and crossovers. The brand says it will launch in the US in 2027.
Alpine’s quest for new funds will start at the end of next year or early 2025, according to brand CEO Philippe Krief, who joined the company last February from Ferrari. “Geely is part of the group and we are looking at things with them,” he told Automotive News Europe, noting the brand’s focus now is on formalizing its product and industrial plan. Meanwhile, the brand has spent the last six years pushing one model, the A110, which sold 3,500 units last year, and many of those were in France.
But it has now hatched much bigger plans. Electrek has already covered that Alpine sees the US as a “crucial market in reaching its sales targets” and intends to position its EV models similarly to Porche’s two SUVs. Alpine has also confirmed that it is in talks with AutoNation, one of the US’s largest automotive retailers, about setting up a dealer network as soon as 2027.
Of course, it’s not surprising that Volvo and Lotus owner Geely would be on the shortlist of potential investors, considering that Renault and Geely already make gas and hybrid powertrains together. And Geely has big ambitions to widen its sales internationally and recently launched its high-end EV brand Zeekr in Europe.
Plus, bringing Geely further into the fold could put Lotus back into Renault’s line of sight. Alpine and Lotus had been working on a future electric sports car together, but Alpine scrapped the plan and decided to develop its own architecture.
Alpine is now prepping a lineup of seven all-electric vehicles, starting with the A290 hatchback, which is based on the architecture of the upcoming Renault 5, for next year. In 2025, it plans to roll out the C-segment crossover GT, followed by an all-new A110. In 2026, Alpine is targeting €2 billion in revenue. That’s an extremely tall order, with an additional target of €8 billion ($8.6 billion) in Alpine revenue by the end of this decade.