Renault Australia says it's 'not the right time' for Alpine performance brand

Renault Australia is open to reintroducing the Alpine performance brand locally, but says current demand for premium electric sports cars is not strong enough to justify an imminent relaunch.

The historic French sports car brand, in existence since the 1950s, was resurrected by Renault in 2017 and introduced to Australia the following year. It fielded only the A110 coupe globally until 2024 (from 2018-2021 in Australia), when it revealed the A290 electric hot hatch, based on the Renault 5 E-Tech.

That was the first electric vehicle (EV) to arrive as part of Alpine’s ambitious plans for global expansion, and while it was quickly followed by the A390 electric SUV, the brand recently announced it would cancel all of its larger electric SUVs and modify its next-generation A110 electric coupe to potentially acommodate a petrol version.

Even so, Renault Australia general manager Glen Sealey says he is “quite excited by Alpine”.

“When we look at Alpine with an all-electric lineup, we think there is an opportunity,” he told media at the local launch of the Renault Scenic E-Tech.

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“But when I look at the sales above the [Luxury Car Tax] rate in the Australian market for all-electric cars, they’re not fantastic. So now’s not the right time to launch.”

That’s despite Mr Sealey announcing “the return of the iconic Alpine performance brand to Australia” in May 2025, with the tri-motor A390 previously poised to spearhead the brand’s local revival in late 2026 or early 2027.

But the shift in tone mimics Mr Sealey’s sentiment towards future Renault EVs, for which he says Australia’s electric market share is currently too small to justify more than three of the French brand’s EVs, despite several new models on sale in Europe.

“It goes back to Renault 4 and Renault 5. We’ve got to look at the market, judge the market where it is, make sure it meets those three criteria, and as soon as it does, in you go. But the cupboard’s there to grab something out of,” Mr Sealey said.

According to Mr Sealey, that criterion pertains to whether a car will work for the manufacturer from a profit perspective, fit into the brand’s dealer network, and make sense for customers. At the moment, it appears the business case for Alpine doesn’t stack up as well as Renault Australia needs it to.

When asked whether that means the previously proposed late 2026/early 2027 launch for Alpine has been delayed, Mr Sealey said Renault would have to “assess the market a bit longer first”.

“We’ve still got the opportunity. If you look at Alpine, you’ve got the A390 as the next car, just launched in Europe, it’s a terrific vehicle,” he said.

“But would we bring that into a market today when the segment is so tiny above the LCT threshold for EVs? Not yet.”

The current LCT threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles (those with combined fuel consumption of less than 3.5L/100 km) is $91,387, and vehicles priced above that threshold incur additional costs.

Alpine’s A390 starts at €67,500 in France, or about A$110,000, placing it well above Australia’s LCT threshold in a direct conversion. For context, there are currently 76 individual model variants on sale priced above the threshold, compared to 173 below it, and it’s the latter group that dominate EV volume.

Renault Australia is currently unable to provide a new estimate for Alpine’s local reintroduction, with Mr Sealey declaring the French performance car brand’s relaunch “depends on the market”.

As the SUVs that Renault had planned to sit above the A390 have now been axed, it’s understood the brand will instead focus on developing derivatives based on the A110, with the potential for various seating arrangements and powertrains as part of the new-generation’s model range, which is slated for launch later this year.

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