Renault's Alpine brand aims for 6-figure sales by 2030

PARIS – Renault Group has set a revenue target for the Alpine sports-car brand that could translate to about 150,000 annual sales by 2030. 

Alpine, which also includes Renault’s racing activities, has sold just 2,518 cars through the end of October in Europe – but it has only a single model, the mid-engine A110 sports coupe, which is set up for low volume production and will be replaced by a range of full-electric models (see chart, below).

Renault CEO Luca de Meo said that he expects it will take several decades to turn Alpine into a global player from a niche builder.

"Expanding the Alpine brand is a 20 years' journey, as you need two or three generations of models," de Meo said in an interview with Automotive News Europe at Renault headquarters in Paris last month.

De Meo said Alpine has several advantages, including an electric-only lineup that builds on shared technology and other assets, that will help it succeed in the fiercely competitive premium segments. 

"It is closer to [business] models such as Polestar, because it’s leveraging a lot of assets but still has unique technological bricks," de Meo said. 

A coming C+ [larger compact] segment crossover that Alpine is developing, for example, will use the Renault-Nissan CMF-EV platform, but substantially modified. "We have changed the rear axle, added active torque vectoring, and use premium chemistry for the battery and a more sophisticated electric motor," de Meo said.

De Meo is no stranger to transforming sporty sub-brands or trim levels into standalone brands. He tested this approach by separating Abarth from Fiat in 2007 and later carved out Cupra from Seat in 2018, giving Cupra its own model range.

Last year Renault renamed its Formula One works team Alpine to accompany its endurance-racing efforts, and this is giving the brand a boost in global recognition, de Meo said in November.

De Meo said that while Alpine, which was started in the 1950s as a private tuning company for Renault cars, has been known mainly in Europe, Formula One has tens of millions TV viewers per race globally, and this is opening up new opportunities for the brand. According to Formula One’s own figures, total TV audience for the series in 2021 was 1.55 billion.

As the brand gains global recognition – and launches a range that will include more and larger vehicles than what was previously announced – Alpine could expand into in North America and China, De Meo said. 

Eventually, sales outside of Europe could reach 50 percent of the total, he said. He also did not rule out a future listing, as sports-car brands Ferrari and Porsche have done successfully.

At Renault Group’s capital market day on Nov. 8, Alpine announced its financial targets: to increase revenues on average by 40 percent a year from 2023 to 2030, with intermediate targets of 2 billion euros annually by 2026 and 8 billion euros by 2030. The brand is led by CEO Laurent Rossi.

Asked last month if the 2030 revenue target would translate to 200,000 annual sales at an average invoice of 40,000 euros, or 120,000 sales at a 65,000 euro average, de Meo said the target would be "in between" those figures.

"I think that (this) will be the volume span, given that we will have a range of five or six cars, between dedicated Alpine models and derivatives of Renaults," he said.

The first new Alpine is to be a "hot hatch" related to the coming Renault 5 full-electric small car, but the brand’s global expansion is likely to be driven by midsize and large GT crossovers, due respectively in 2027 and 2028.

De Meo said that one option on the table for the crossovers, which he says could be sold in the U.S. and Chinese markets, is to build them in South Korea, given the country’s free-trade agreements with several international markets.

In the November plan presentation, Alpine said the platform for these two GT crossovers would come by partnering with a "leading EV player." Volvo and Polestar both offer electric crossovers, and both are subsidiaries of Geely, the Chinese company that is becoming Renault’s partner in the Horse combustion-engine joint venture and also has a 35 percent stake in Renault’s factory in Busan, South Korea.

De Meo said Alpine is still scouting for options on the platforms.