Styling
When you're starting with something which looks as magnificent on the outside as the Renault 5, you're off to a flyer. And so the Alpine ramps things up aesthetically, starting with a set of large, dark-coloured 19-inch alloys. It has more prominent arch mouldings, beefier side skirts, rear doors with scalloped-out sections, and then the A290's signature feature, those X-shaped DRLs in the nose - these are a direct callback to Alpine's wintry rallying exploits in the 1960s, and are supposed to evoke glass lenses which had been taped up to prevent them shattering during motorsport activities. The A290 looks particularly good in white and we totally understand that many will prefer its marginally more hench appearance. We like it; we just like the R5 source material that teeny-tiny fraction more.
Interior
Again, the R5 architecture is strong in this one, but there are key differences with the Alpine. Chiefly, the A290 has a 'button pad' layout for its transmission, as per the
majestic A110, so the hooked column-shifter of the Renault is ditched. In come sumptuous bucket seats, different dashboard textures and finishing, and bespoke graphics (including lots of animated triangle motifs when you're pressing on in the EV) for the twin ten-inch digital displays. There's also the lovely Alpine steering wheel with the provocative red 'overtake' button and a manettino-type switch for adjusting the car's superbly judged regenerative braking. Overall, the A290's cabin is a very classy and appealing place to be, so no complaints here.
Practicality
You don't lose or gain anything meaningful in terms of passenger or boot space in the Alpine A290 GTS+, compared to the Renault 5 E-Tech. This means accommodation in the second row is OK but not amazing, while the boot stands at 326 litres with all seats in use. Well, it does, unless you go for the GTS+ as tested here, which has the Devialet premium sound system that saps another 26 litres out of the cargo bay. Basically, don't pick the A290 if you need the paragon of interior versatility.
Performance
There are two main powertrain variants for the A290, which start with the 180hp GT+, capable of 0-62mph in 7.4 seconds. But both the GT Performance+ and this GTS+ flagship have the more potent 220hp/300Nm motor, which trims a whole second off the 0-62mph sprint. All versions use the larger 52kWh battery pack from the R5, resulting in a 226-mile range in our test car, or 234 miles in the 180hp A290.
You're going to want the 220hp car, though, because it makes sense of the Alpine's butch exterior styling and it represents a 70hp uplift over the fastest Renault 5. And the way the 1.5-tonne A290 GTS+ performs is about bang on the money for a hot hatch of this class, with strong acceleration balanced off against the impression that driving the Alpine hard wouldn't put your licence at any great risk. It's quick, but not dementedly so.
It also has those marvellous brakes which you can tweak with that blue rotary switch on the steering wheel, but better yet was the real-world efficiency of 3.4 miles/kWh across 181 miles of testing. That'd be a realistic range of around 177 miles, and it's not far off the electrical economy the far-less-muscular Renault 5 gave us back when we tested that in 2025.
Ride & Handling
Don't misconstrue us, the A290 GTS+ is great fun to drive. It has a firmer, tauter feel and level of ultimate control than the Renault, so the use of the Alpine badging doesn't feel like a grotesque misstep on the manufacturers' part. The steering is satisfyingly direct, with good feedback too, and you can have real fun hurling the A290 about on testing back lanes because it is a relatively light EV. Yes, the ride comfort is a little less plush than the Renault's, and you do discern a bit more of the road surface's topography than you necessarily need to while cruising along, but the Alpine is not uncomfortable and it's not excessively noisy either.
The question is, does it deliver enough of a dynamic uplift over the R5 for a ten-grand price hike? That's a trickier point to address. There's no doubt, in isolation, the A290 is a great thing to deal with, and if you buy one you're sure to be utterly delighted with it. But it's probably not thrilling enough,
in extremis, to be your primary form of transport, so it's always going to be a second car. And in that regard, we think you're better off with the cheaper, more efficient and more comfortable Renault, because that drives incredibly sweetly too.
Value
As we've touched upon, in flagship 220hp GTS+ trim, this Alpine A290 costs £34,245 with the government's EV car grant chucked in. It's not a devastating amount of money on its own, and we do know of one family that were looking at the R5 as a second car but then saw the Alpine was only about £16 a month more expensive on a finance deal so went for that instead.
But that's a massive lump-sum step up from the Renault, and as much as we heartily like the A290, it's not quite tantalising enough as a driver's car to justify that uplift. It also won't have things all its own way in the electric hot hatch market for too long, either, as both the diff-equipped
Cupra Raval VZ and
Volkswagen ID. Polo GTI are inbound, as is the Peugeot E-208 GTi.
Verdict
Alpine has a difficult job on its hands pivoting from the featherweight A110 to the likes of the
A390 performance fastback in the all-electric era, but the brilliant A290 GTS+ is a sensationally good bridging model. It's lively enough in the corners to make you forget it's an EV at times, yet it works as a runaround almost as well as it does a performance hatch. We still favour the almighty Renault 5 upon which the A290 is based, but if you think this one looks better and has a jazzier interior, and you just want more robust straight-line speed no matter the cost, we wouldn't criticise you at all in plumping for the deeply alluring Alpine.
