The first official look at the third-generation Alpine A110 is a blue sheet stretched over a car-shaped form, mounted on a black plinth so it appears to hover.Alpine released it in a September 28 press release that calls the piece "an artistic vision" which "hints, in sculptural form," at the new car's bodywork. It goes on the Alpine stand at the Paris Motor Show, which runs October 12 to 18 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Renault will be in the same building with its 270-hp R8 Gordini concept.Outside the boilerplate at the bottom, the release never uses the word "electric." It gives no battery size, power output, weight, dimensions, price or on-sale date. For a car Renault Group once put a deadline on, that last omission stands out.From left: the bare APP (Alpine Performance Platform) chassis, the camouflaged A110 FUTURE development mule shown at Goodwood in July, and the new sculpture. Photo: Alpine, manufacturer press image.A deadline nobody repeatsIn June 2023, a Renault Group release titled "Alpine's revolution is underway" said: "The all-new A110, Alpine's heritage and know-how flag-bearer, will be 100% electric by end 2026." The same document said the new platform could "change length and width as needed" and would also carry a roadster and a four-seat A310.Renault Group's futuREady strategy, published March 10, 2026, lists "launching the next generation of its iconic model, the A110, based on the Alpine Performance Platform" among Alpine's goals. It attaches no year. Alpine's July 3 release says the third-generation A110 "will be the world's first true EV sportscar," again without a date, and without defining "true." The sculpture release adds nothing on timing either.None of the three 2026 documents repeats the end-2026 target, and none withdraws it. As of publication there are 87 days left in the year, and the only body Alpine has shown is under a sheet.What the drape is supposed to showAlpine says draping a veil over a form is a tool its designers use to judge proportions without committing to surface detail. The features it asks you to find underneath: a V-shaped nose, a "dual light signature," a shark-nose front end, a beltline falling to a lowered tail, a teardrop-shaped cabin, four "particularly muscular" wheel arches and a narrow waist between them.Alpine says the V-shaped front and dual light signature of the third-generation A110 can be read through the drape. Photo: Alpine, manufacturer press image.The stated inspiration is Concorde at the instant it breaks the sound barrier, which the release calls "a symbol of French technological excellence." Concorde was built jointly by the British Aircraft Corporation and France's Aérospatiale. The release leaves out the British half.The proportions point one way. The mule Alpine ran at Goodwood wore the current A110's bodywork "stretched to accommodate the new dimensions" of the platform, according to the sculpture release. So the next car is bigger than today's A110, a car built around being small and light. Alpine has not said by how much.The sculpture in profile, showing the teardrop cabin and the beltline Alpine describes as running from the nose to a lowered rear. Photo: Alpine, manufacturer press image.What the mule already disclosedThe engineering came out in July, before the styling. Pierre Gasly drove the A110 FUTURE mule up the Goodwood hill on July 9 with the Duke of Richmond in the passenger seat, and Alpine's release from that day and the July 3 release list the hardware:800V battery system, cell-to-pack, in two packs (front and rear) stacked across two floors inside a high-pressure die-cast aluminium casingTwo rear electric motors in a 3-in-1 unit, permanent-magnet synchronous, with silicon-carbide inverters and a 21,500-rpm ceiling400V boost chargingActive Torque Vectoring 2.0 and wheel-slip torque controlControl systems "engineered to flex across" rear-drive and all-wheel-drive versions of the platformAluminium structure and full aluminium suspensionTwo numbers in those releases sit side by side awkwardly. The July 3 release says the packs are positioned "to respect the 40/60% front:rear balance of a true sports car." The Goodwood release says the battery's energy is split 25% front, 75% rear. They measure different things (weight distribution versus stored energy), and they can both be true. With both motors and three-quarters of the cells behind the seats, reaching 40/60 overall means a lot of the car's other mass has to sit up front. Alpine has published no curb weight and no total battery capacity, so neither figure can be checked yet.The current car sets the bar the new one will be judged against. Alpine says more than 35,000 A110s have come out of its Dieppe factory, and the brand already sells two electric models, the A290 hatchback (the one it let Lacoste dress up for Chantilly) and the 470-hp A390 fastback. Neither is a two-seat sports car.ParisThe sculpture goes on show when the Paris doors open on October 12. Watch whether the placard next to it carries a launch year, a weight or a length, because the press release carries none of the three. If Alpine still intends to meet the 2023 promise, it has from October 18 to December 31 to show a car without a sheet on it.Is a bigger, electric A110 still an A110 to you, or should Alpine have given the third-generation car a new name?Sources: Alpine press release, "Alpine unveils a sculpture previewing the future A110," September 28, 2026; Alpine press releases of July 3 and July 9, 2026, on the A110 FUTURE; Renault Group, "Alpine's revolution is underway," June 26, 2023; Renault Group futuREady release, March 10, 2026; Mondial de l'Auto 2026 show information. All images: Alpine press images, supplied for editorial use.⚡ Read the full article on Backfire News
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