Lotus and Renault's Alpine halt electric sports car collaboration

Lotus and Renault Group’s Alpine unit have stopped collaborating on a joint sports car but haven’t ruled out future tie-ups, Lotus said.

Renault in 2021 announced the collaboration with Lotus on an electric platform for the A110 sports car replacement, which was expected to appear by 2027. 

“We have decided not to progress with the joint development of a sports car for Alpine. This is a mutual decision reached amicably,” Lotus said in an emailed statement to Automotive News Europe on Monday.

An Alpine spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that Renault was considering using its own technology to develop future Alpine models rather than working with Lotus.

However, Lotus, which is majority owned by China’s Geely, hinted that the two companies could collaborate on other future models. “We have built a strong relationship between the two companies and will continue to discuss other opportunities,” Lotus said on Monday in its statement.

Renault and Geely are collaborating in other ventures, including a combustion-engine company called Horse and production of vehicles at Renault’s factory in Busan, South Korea. 

Alpine needs premium electric platforms on which to build larger SUV models aimed at global markets, including the U.S.  

The sports car brand has aspirations to sell two models in the U.S., a midsize full-electric SUV and a larger model starting in 2027 or 2028. “The U.S. is the main destination for these cars,” he said earlier this year.

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi previously said that Geely is the “most natural” partner for the platform in a call with journalists in January.

Lotus is looking for partners to scale its premium electric platform used for the Eletre large SUV as well as future sedan and SUV models. 

Lotus said it remained “fully committed” to its electric sports car, codenamed Type 135, despite Alpine’s exit.

Future Alpine models will be electric.

The first to be launched will be the Renault 5 Alpine, a “hot hatch” version of the coming Renault 5 small EV, in the second half of 2024. It will be followed in 2025 by a sporty compact SUV, tentatively called the GT, which will have a “bespoke” design and will use a highly modified Renault-Nissan platform, likely CMF-EV.