Alpine A290 2026 review | The electric hot hatch based on the Renault 5

What is the Alpine A290?

After the spellbinding A110 sports car, the A290 is just the second Alpine to be launched in the modern era. And it is a very different sort of car to the first, powered not by a piston engine but an electric motor, taking the form not of a two-seat sports car but a five-door hatchback, and being based not on a bespoke platform but a repurposed one.

The A290 shares its underpinnings with the Renault 5 E-Tech – which, it must be said, is as promising a starting point as you’ll find in this sector of the market. The Renault is already a joyful car to drive – Alpine’s job was to make the A290 not just pleasant but thrilling, to ramp up performance levels to entirely new heights, and to give it the look and feel of a true hot hatch.

Alpine’s own marketing espouses the virtues of lightness – an attribute rarely found in electric cars given the current state of battery technology. And though there is a great deal to like about the A290, what it has in common with the A110 is superficial at best. Making a small, lightweight sports car great to drive is one thing – doing the same with an electric hatchback is a different, rather more problematic matter altogether. More on which in a moment.

How practical is it?

One of the great advantages of an EV powertrain is compactness. Once you’ve spread the batteries out across the floor, the electric motor and associated hardware are far easier to package within the body of the car than a comparable combustion engine powertrain – and typically you’ll be left with a more spacious interior, or more storage capacity.

But not always. The A290’s boot is somewhat limited at 326 litres and there is no storage compartment beneath the bonnet, while the cramped rear seat space means taller passengers simply won’t fit in the back. Even small children in their ISOFIX seats will find their feet are pressed up against the back of the seat in front. In large part this is because of the A290’s very sporty front seats – they are supportive and great to look at, but their bulky size means they eat hungrily into rear cabin space.

Where the Renault 5 E-Tech has a cup holder, its A290 sibling has drive select buttons in a clear attempt to invoke the A110 sports car. Consequently you won’t find anywhere to place your morning coffee in the Alpine, meaning you’ll clamp it between your thighs and pray to the heavens that you spot any potholes lurking in the road.

While most electric cars lose some percentage of their range as the weather turns cold, the A290 seems to despise winter conditions more than most. In summer it’s quite possible to tease 200 miles out of a single charge, but when ambient temperatures fall close to freezing, the Alpine might return no more than half that. If you have a longer regular commute, that will wear thin long before spring has arrived.

What’s it like to drive?

For decades, some of the best hot hatches you could buy wore Renault Sport badges. Regrettably, that dynasty came to a sudden end several years ago – this A290, from sister brand Alpine, is the true successor to all those wonderful Clios and Meganes that kept enthusiasts amused for years.

Much of the expertise, and indeed much of the design and engineering talent that produced great hot hatch after great hot hatch at Renault Sport has been deployed here. It should therefore be no surprise to learn that this Alpine handles like a true hot hatch, never mind that it’s powered by entirely different means.

The A290 is at its best on fast, flowing roads, where long corners bleed into more long corners. You need space to get some speed up, because only then can you lean hard enough on the Alpine’s chassis to bring the car to life. On tighter, twister roads, it can feel strangely inert. Perhaps that is the near 1500kg weight of the car – a lot for a small hot hatch, not so much by EV standards – or maybe it’s the lack of a fizzing combustion engine and a manual gearbox to keep you entertained while the chassis is out of its operating window.

But on the right road, this Alpine is not just grippy and agile, but deeply entertaining to drive as well. It has responsive steering, enormous levels of body control and powerful braking performance too. Find a slippery surface and you’ll discover more torque steer than you would like. This is a brisk car but not a forcefully accelerative one, and while certain rivals add a limited-slip differential to bring a sense of mechanical connection to proceedings, Alpine chose not to, which is a pity.

In fact, there is room for Alpine to make the A290 even more fun in numerous areas. Certain rivals with more power, a more adjustable chassis balance and the limited-slip differential mentioned above show how Alpine’s chassis and powertrain engineers could elevate the A290 to even greater heights. Perhaps they will in time.

At low speeds the A290’s sports-tuned chassis does tend to find every lump and bump in the road and telegraph them directly to the cabin, but with a little speed beneath you, the ride quality improves significantly.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The base model A290 GT+ comes so well equipped that some buyers will feel no need whatsoever to upgrade to a higher specification. From a connectivity standpoint, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are of course included as standard, but the Alpine also features a full suite of integrated Google apps – think Google Maps, Google Gemini (its AI tool), the Google Play Store and full integration with your own Google account, so your car can be synced to your Gmail or Google calendar.

The GT+ also features adaptive cruise control, a reversing camera, heated front seats and more besides. So why upgrade at all? Well, the GT+ is the least powerful version in the line up with 178bhp, while the GT Performance+ and GTS+ both get 217bhp motors. Over and above the base model, the GT Performance+ also adds grippier tyres and bigger brakes, plus Alpine’s Telemetrics Expert function, which gives not only real-time driving data but also coaching in the form of driving tips, and even driving challenges that are designed to improve your driving. So that’s why you’d upgrade – because you’re an enthusiast and you want the A290 at its fastest and most focussed. Finally, the range-topping GTS+ adds Nappa leather trim and a heated steering wheel.

All models feature a heat pump as standard, which protects winter range by using heat created by the EV powertrain to warm the cabin instead of generating it using power-sapping heating elements.

The full suite of driver assist functions, such as lane-keep assist and blindspot monitoring, is a £900 upgrade across the line up, but they all get the full range of driving modes as standard. The red button on the steering wheel, labelled ‘OV’ for overtake, gives full acceleration in short bursts, which is a slightly gimmicky but nevertheless quite amusing function that reminds you that you’re driving a true performance car, not just a little hatchback.

The standard stereo is a six-speaker system, while both higher specification models get a nine-speaker Devialet upgrade. This can be added to the GT+ for £780, while Alpine Telemetrics Expert is a £400 upgrade on that model.

The A290’s maximum charge speed is 100kW – in reality that’s just about enough, particularly for a car with a modestly sized battery, but many EVs will accept a charge at three or four times that rate.

Alpine A290 running costs

Compared to a less sporty alternative like its Renault 5 E-Tech sibling, the A290 is inevitably going to prove more costly to run. It will deplete its 52kWh battery faster thanks to its more powerful motor and wider tyres, burn through that rubber at a faster rate and cost more to insure and service too. These are the prices we pay for choosing a hot hatch over a conventional hatchback.

But it’s fairer to compare the A290 to its immediate rivals, such as the Peugeot E-208 GTi. According to official figures the Alpine is slightly more energy efficient than both the Peugeot and the Mini JCW Electric, but in reality the differences between them will be marginal. However, the A290 does sit in a lower insurance group than certain rivals, particularly if you choose the less powerful GT+ variant.

On which note, it’s worth pointing out that only this model sits on EV-specific tyres that are designed to reduce energy consumption, thereby cutting running costs and improving driving range. Their harder compound reduces rolling resistance but also cornering grip and traction – keener drivers will be quite happy to upgrade to the sporty Michelin Pilot Sport 5S tyre option, gladly accepting the greater cost of replacing them and their efficiency penalty.

All versions of the A290 qualify for the government’s £3750 electric car grant, bringing prices down to £30,325 for the GT+, £32,745 for the GT Performance+ and £34,245 for the GTS+. From the second year onwards, all models will incur a flat £200 road tax bill.

Alpine A290 reliability

The A290 is still too new to have earned a reputation either or good or bad when it comes to reliability, but would-be buyers should take some confidence from the fact that parent company Renault ranked a very fine sixth out of 31 manufacturers in a recent ownership survey.

Even so, one or two minor concerns are beginning to emerge. Some very early cars, built late in 2024, have been known to throw up erroneous electric motor failure warnings with a bright red STOP light illuminating the dash. This should have been fixed on all affected cars via a simple software reflash. Additionally, a batch of cars built at the very end of 2025 or the very start of 2026 were recalled to have a faulty battery module replaced under warranty.

Some owners of cars equipped with the upgraded Nappa leather seat upholstery have reported premature sagging of the hide on the seat base. Alpine has acknowledged the problem, saying it will source replacement leather kits for these owners.

The A290 is covered by a three-year or 60,000-mile manufacturers’ warranty, which is a far cry from the seven or even 10-year guarantees made by certain manufacturers. The Alpine’s 52kWh battery is at least covered for eight years or 100,000 miles.