The Alpine A290 hot hatch is being readied for June 2024

Good news about the Alpine A290: the long-awaited electric hot hatch will be unveiled in June 2024.

So tasty there’s a high chance it'll earn its own Michelin star when it launches, we now know the five-seater will actually have, er, five seats. The A290-beta concept had a centrally placed driving position and steering wheel which, sadly, hasn't made it to production.

The steering wheel has borrowed some functionality from F1, though, with Overtake, Recharge and Drive modes all available at the touch of a (steering wheel) button. It'll also have 19in rims clad in Michelin-developed tyres, optimised for EV performance.

We don't yet have more specifics on Alpine's sportier version of the new Renault 5, but the prototype was almost four metres long, just over 1.8m wide and 1.5m tall.

Alpine tells us there's been a focus on driving precision and agility during its extensive, final-development-stage testing in the chilly climes of Sweden.

Philippe Krief, Alpine CEO said: “To fine-tune its development so that it can be effective in all circumstances and all-weather conditions, the winter development stage of the A290 is crucial as it is a completely new car.”

And this completely new small all-electric car features a rather fetching new camo wrap as it tackles temperatures as low as -30-degrees Celsius, which debunks the long-debated issue of whether EV batteries work in winter weather. We'll see how it holds up when it's launched... in summer.