Remember the exciting Alpine A110-50 concept that Renault brought to this year’s edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed? It seems that the French company is seriously taking into consideration of rolling out a product version of the car which should be out possibly in 2015. At least this is what the firm’s chief operating officer said. Carlos Tavares added that when it will hit the market it will cost somewhere around 40,000 pounds.
Carlos also mentioned that he is determined to revive the Alpine brand and the first vehicle in the new family will be a modern interpretation of the A110 Berlinette. In order to make it profitable, Renault will probably decide to spread some of the costs developing the vehicle with another automaker. Tavares added that Renault is already negotiating with another company and a decision will be made by the end of the year. From that point on, it will take 3-5 years to launch the vehicle.
Although Tavares did not disclose the name of the partner, various sources are indicating that Renault will reach an agreement with Mercedes-Benz to develop the new Alpine. The reason for this is because Renault, along with its alliance partner Nissan, already has a connection with Mercedes as all three automakers are working on the new generation of the Twingo. There aren’t a lot of details concerning the mid-engined platform which will be used for the production Alpine, but chances are that it will borrow it from the upcoming Mercedes-Benz SLC AMG coupe which will be slotted below the SLS AMG in the German firm’s lineup.
Other sources are considering Lotus as a possible partner for Renault to co-develop the new Alpine. As most of you know, the British carmaker is already giving Infiniti the chassis of the Evora while for the Emerg-E they’ve given their hybrid technology.
Source: Renault via AutoExpress.co.uk
