Renault is reviving its performance sub-brand by turning Renault Sport into Alpine Cars.
A few months ago, Renault came forward with Renaulution, a master plan of the company’s future and related documents stated several changes planned for the company in the upcoming years. One of them mentioned that the sports division will be renovated as part of those improvements, yet no representative explained what that meant. Now, as announced in a recent press release, both Renault Sport and Renault Sport Racing are becoming Alpine Cars. Moreover, all current and future projects will be supervised by this new division.
“As part of the reorganization of the Renault Group by brand, it is essential that the various entities that make up the business unit bear the Alpine name and embody the values and ambitions of the brand,” said Alpine’s CEO Laurent Rossi.
Rossi explained that Alpine Cars aspires to be a luxury sports brand at the cutting edge of technology and creativity. Alpine Cars’ knowledge and success in sports cars is a key factor in accomplishing these objectives.
However, the news won’t come as a surprise for Formula 1 fans as the Renault Sport team was rebranded to Alpine F1 back in September last year. Their new F1 racer’s livery was supposed to last for the entire season, but now, it’s safe to say that it should continue even further.
According to Renault, all of its workers, plants, and facilities will remain the same, except for their names. Similarly, any customer who owns a Renault Sport car can continue to receive service from Alpine Cars.
Renault’s famous hot hatchbacks including the R5 GT Turbo, Clio Williams, and of course the Mégane RS were a big hit in the market and Alpine Cars recently complemented this successful run with the all-new A110, greatly inspired by the eponymous historic predecessor. And worth mentioning, the company is expected to also unveil a separate range of all-electric performance brand cars in the near future.
“By becoming Alpine Cars, the teams are embarking on a new dynamic, rich in projects carried out with the support of the Alpine Racing teams and all of Renault Group’s businesses. This is an extremely exciting time for our engineers,” commented Alpine’s product performance and engineering director Robert Bonetto.
Unfortunately, neither Renault nor Alpine Cars currently sell vehicles in the United States, so the new division won’t change much for the average Joe. However, Alpine’s strategy for the American market could very well change after becoming an independent entity.
We’ll keep an eye out!
