I think the Alpine A390 might just wean me off sporty EV rivals from Porsche and Hyundai

It’s taken me a while to get behind the wheel of the Alpine A390 in its GT format (there’s also a GTS version) after being charmed by the Alpine A290 a while back. The wait has been worthwhile, however, because it is every bit as good as I’d hoped for. It’s a fun car that comes with a price tag (especially the £69,000 plus for the GTS) that puts it into the same buyer ballpark as the fabulous Hyundai Ioniq 5 N and Porsche Macan. Those cars are fun too, but the Alpine feels just a little more exclusive.

A lot of that is down to the look, which isn’t quite SUV but isn’t saloon either. Is it a fastback? Alpine suggests it’s a ‘sports fastback’, which sounds about right. Well, whatever category it falls into, the Alpine A390 is a great looking car, done best when offered in dazzling metallic blue with cleverly contrasting trim and wheel flourishes. Plus, this is a performance car that uses a trio of electric motors and all-wheel drive to successfully get the power down.

The styling

Alpine has done a fine job with the exterior styling of the A390. My car was in the distinctive blue that works so well for this car, and the look was boosted by the contrasting black roof, sills and trim elements. A dazzling set of alloys added to the classy feel. Up front, the grille area is a real treat, with slimline headlights and neat cutout sections lower down that make it look very distinctive. The sculpted bonnet is a clever bit of design too.

The backend is just as good, with more slender design treatment for the taillights and Alpine letters rather than a badge, as per the front end. I thought the angular pop-out door handles were and interesting choice, but they worked well enough. It was just a shame that operating them was done using a very cheap-looing standard issue Renault key fob, which felt like corner cutting to me. I’m not a huge fan of charging ports on the back of the front wing either as they can be awkward to reach at commercial chargers. Even charging at home meant I had to park strategically to get the cable to reach.

I thought the interior was a bit of a mixed bag. The overall layout and styling were good, with the same sporty feel offered by the Alpine A290, including a steering wheel that felt great in my hands. I wasn’t quite so taken with the faux carbon fibre bits, like the angular bit that is fitted around the drive mode buttons in the centre console. In fact, a lot of the shiny black plastic also felt very reflective and was mildly annoying as a result. Oh, and the floor mat kept slipping away from me each time I got in and out. Minor gripes.

On the whole, though, the cockpit of the Alpine A290 is a success. The legroom wasn’t bad in the back either although there’s a compromise situation going on in the headroom department with that sloping roof. Up front, the driving position felt great and the electric seat was easily adjusted although each time I did this it asked me if I wanted to save the settings. That got annoying after a bit. I did like the sculpted seat design and the continuity was impressive as this followed through to the rear layout adding a classy level of detail.

The drive

The Alpine A390 is a much chunkier creation than the Alpine A290. In fact, it weighs over 2 tons, so on paper the sporty appeal of this sports fastback sounds like it might not be as interesting to drive. However, the powertrain setup is definitely geared towards performance, with a three-motor layout that features one at the front and the other two at the rear. While the GTS version of the car offers beefier performance with 463bhp, the 395bhp GT model I had felt perfectly adequate for everyday use.

The Track mode, one of five different drive options, is perhaps the point where real fans of the Alpine A390 will be able to exploit the car’s power, poise and sporty setup. However, I loved its everyday driving appeal. Sure, the ride felt a bit hard on some roads and poor surfaces, but as someone who drives a petrol-powered sports car, that was fine with me.

The power delivery and positive feel of the steering setup made the Alpine A390 a joy to drive and I got good value from Alpine’s neat active torque vectoring system and four-wheel-drive arrangement. It worked best on backroads where the carefully tuned suspension really got to earn its keep. Again, while some might find the ride a little harsh, I thought it suited the car brilliantly, providing a real sports car experience in a car that’s actually quite hefty and over four and a half metres long.

I’d read some slightly negative words about just how efficient the Alpine A390 was, so having to do a long-ish run in my test car had me topping it up to 100% the night before I left. Well, having managed to do the near 300-mile round trip in one serving, I am pleased to report the Alpine A390 is more efficient than I’d expected. Granted, I took it easy and never tapped into the power apart from the odd overtake (there’s a red ‘OV’ button on the steering wheel that offers extra boost for such manoeuvres), but the car was still impressive.

This was aided with a brake regeneration dial on the left-side of the steering wheel, that I maxed out for the whole time. It worked well too, even pushing the range reading slightly upwards on the odd occasion. I did a lot of motorway miles on that run too, which is never kind to EV battery packs, but even that didn’t sap the energy as much as I’d expected. Naturally, the Alpine A390 seem to fare even better on twisting backroads, where the powertrain setup seemed excellent at conserving energy.

The technology

Despite the fact that this is a £60,000-plus car, the dashboard layout of the Alpine A390 has much that will remind people of Renault products, as well as the A290. The tech centre is, of course, the 12in central infotainment screen supplemented by a crisp driver display, which boasts graphics and a layout that felt very familiar following my time spent in Renault products. No matter, because the look and feel of everything is very good made all the better thanks to Google Maps integration.

Elsewhere, Alpine is to be commended for keeping a few physical buttons and bit for core controls. There was even that extra radio stalk for controlling the audio hidden down behind the steering wheel, just like Renaults have. The sound system wasn’t bad too, although didn’t deliver anything that registered on the ‘wow factor’ scale. The Alpine A390 also has vehicle-to-load (V2L), meaning it’s handy for charging devices such as laptops and e-bike batteries. Always a bonus. Overall, tech levels are solid even if there’s an air of having seen everything somewhere before…

Alpine A390 verdict

I really liked the way the Alpine A390 was set up, and it definitely felt like a proper driver’s car during my time with it. Even though I didn’t really get to exploit the full potential, including that tempting track mode, it gave me enough of an experience to want to drive it again. I clocked up a decent number of miles in at, across a variety of roads and surfaces. It was interesting, very perky and still offered plenty of comfort despite the firm, sporty ride.

The other bonus is that there are very few around, so anyone buying an Alpine A390 should feel part of a pretty exclusive club. That’s less ideal for the people selling them, but a plus point nonetheless.

Alpine A390 GT technical specifications