Renault confirms Alpine R5
It had already been on the horizon, but now it is confirmed: Renault development head Gilles le Borgne has announced that Renault will launch a more powerful Alpine offshoot of the electric R5. A specific performance has also been mentioned.
According to the chief developer, the R5 Alpine will have an output of 160 kW – instead of the 100 kW of the Renault R5. The power is no coincidence, it corresponds exactly to the specification that Renault has made for the new electric Mégane based on the CMF EV platform.
Although the R5 is based on the smaller platform called CMF-BEV, the 100 kW engine is also basically the same design, as le Borgne now stated in an interview with the British magazine Autocar. “We derived the 100kW motor by shortening the length of the e-motor that we will use for the Mégane,” le Borgne said. “It can go through the same production line and has the same technology but less copper and other elements, so it’s shorter.”
When asked specifically if the longer 160 kW version would also fit the smaller CMF BEV platform, the development chief said, “The final answer is yes, because we want to do Alpine cars, as you can imagine. By shortening the engine, it has the same global installation. We will need to adjust the track, because it will be more sporty on the R5 Alpine.”
While the situation with the electric drive system is clear, it is not clear from the Autocar report what batteries the R5 Alpine will use. At the presentation of its electrification strategy at the end of June, Renault had announced that it would rely on two different NMC cell chemistries in future. The R5 will actually use the more affordable variant, these cells are to be manufactured in the recently announced Envision AESC factory to be built in Douai.
The performance cells – for vehicles from the C-segment (such as the Mégane) and Alpine models – will continue to be sourced from long-time battery partner LG Energy Solution, according to the announcement. For the Mégane, Renault has so far quoted a range of 450 kilometres according to WLTP with a 60-kWh pack. It is not yet known whether the R5 Alpine will get different cells compared to the standard model and how large the battery pack can be.
That an Alpine version of the model is likely had already become apparent at the strategy presentation: Of the ten electric models to be launched by 2030, seven are planned under the Renault brand and three as Alpine. At Alpine, Renault showed the silhouette of a sports car (the successor to the Alpine A110 is being developed jointly with Lotus), the silhouette of a compact crossover (very reminiscent of a sports version of the Mégane) and also a silhouette of the R5 – with a large rear spoiler.
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