Alpine A290 review

At the time of writing this, some way ahead of first delivery schedules for early 2025, exact prices are still TBC… but Alpine UK has given us a good steer. Expect them to start from around £33,500 for the 178bhp GT model, £36,500 for the GT Premium (also 178bhp) and rising to £38,000 for the top-spec GTS model, which gets the 217bhp electric motor as standard.

If you’re feeling really flush, there’s a limited edition Premiere Edition that’ll cost around £39,000. So price-wise the A290 picks up where the Renault 5 tails off, which looks like reasonably good value.

What do you get for your money?

If you can do without the extra power (and if your use-case is mostly sitting in traffic, then you absolutely can) then even the entry-level GT comes with 19-inch wheels, heated sports seats, adaptive cruise control, rear parking sensors, reversing camera and wireless phone charging.

Step up to GT Premium and you get a black roof, tinted rear windows, blue brake callipers, leather seats and that Devialet sound system, while the GTS gets the full power output and black snowflake alloys as standard.

Need something to justify the price walk up to a GTS? Like the Renault 5, if you get a specific plan from Octopus energy, you can unlock V2G capabilities where the car charges at off-peak rates, and if it’s still plugged in, sell electricity back to the grid in periods of high demand.