FIRST REPORT

ALPINE A290

LIVING WITH A… Where our long-term test cars have been and what they’ve done

A sporty Renault 5 can only be a good thing, right? Let’s find out

WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Finally, a proper EV hot hatch – but is it as brilliant every day as the Renault 5 on which it’s based?

This will be interesting: what happens when you take a highly acclaimed new car and turn up the wick at the expense of its utility credentials?

There’s almost no point outlining the commendable attributes of the Renault 5 by now, so many column inches have we (justifiably) given over to them in recent months, but suffice to say that it’s a very well-liked little car: it looks great, it has a decent range, its interior tech all works nicely and it’s pretty fun to punt around. So surely a quicker and more engaging take on the formula can only be a winner?

Certainly, our experience of the Alpine A290 so far suggests that it successfully adds spice to the 5 recipe without doing too much to dent its mass appeal and in so doing provides a useful template for a new generation of electric hot hatchbacks – a class that has so far lacked any real star or benchmark. We have had half-cooked early propositions like the over-endowed, under-engineered MG 4 XPower and Smart #1 Brabus and cheeky but highly compromised playthings like the Abarth 500e and Mini Cooper JCW Electric. Now let’s spend a bit of time with a car that has the potential to properly demonstrate the viability – and, importantly, the appeal – of a hot hatch without a combustion engine.