Alpine and Lotus cut ties on EV sportscar
Alpine and Lotus will no longer be moving forward on a collaborative electric sportscar platform. The joint venture was first announced more than two years ago at the beginning of 2021, with the two marques coming to a ‘memorandum of understanding’ investigating the possibility of platform sharing between what was believed to be the next-generation Alpine A110 and Lotus Elise.
Now, the two marques have parted ways, with Renault and Alpine choosing to proceed independently of Geely and Lotus. The former claims it can get the job done with in-house expertise alone.
“Lotus and Alpine have been collaborating on a future EV sports car vision for more than two years, during which time a strong relationship between the two companies has developed,” Alpine’s statement reads.
“As with any collaboration following an MoU, the outcome was not guaranteed. We have decided not to progress with the joint development of a sports car for Alpine. This is a mutual decision reached amicably and we will continue to discuss other future opportunities.”
Given Alpine’s previous attempts at collaboration, this team-up not bearing fruit shouldn’t come as a surprise. The current A110 was intended to be a collaboration between Alpine and Caterham, with the relationship souring when purse strings couldn’t be pried further open.
What does that mean? Well, they’ve parted ways on good terms and these things are rarely fruitless. Will the A110 and Elise of tomorrow be platform sharers? No. Will the learnings of the MoU be utilised in their conception? Probably. Both face the same challenges, are adept at their craft and have tough acts to follow. We look forward to sampling both.
Alpine
Lotus
EV
Electric Avenue
