Alpine unveiled the A110 sports car in 2017 as its first model after becoming a standalone brand within the Renault family. Six years is usually around the age when many automakers prefer to change the generations of their models but apparently, this is not going to be the case with the A110. The French automaker wants to keep it alive with almost no changes as long as possible and maximize the model’s lifespan.
According to a new report from Automotive News, Alpine intends to have the current A110 on sale until the end of 2026 when a fully-electric successor is expected to be launched. By that time, the sports car will be almost ten years old. The demand, however, is currently growing, which is a positive sign that Alpine’s strategy could work.
Gallery: 2023 Alpine A110 R
"We are in year five of the project, normally you see a decline, but we are increasing sales," Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi told the online publication. This is a little surprising but indeed, the numbers for 2022 show 3,546 sales, or 33 percent more than the prior year. More importantly, almost the entire 2023 production has already been spoken for, meaning the demand won’t decrease in the next 12 months.
Even more interestingly, though, the A110 outsold the Porsche Cayman in Europe last year. The sports car from Stuttgart is considered the A110’s main competitor and even has a similar entry-level price tag. On the Old continent, the A110 sold 3,260 units versus 2,596 for the Cayman. The Boxster – the Cayman’s open-top sibling – registered 2,364 sales.
The demand for the A110 peaked in 2019 when 4,431 units were delivered to customers. After a major decline in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2022 proved solid with “stronger than anticipated” demand. "We will extend the life of the current one as long as possible to amortize the investment and ride on its success as long as we can," Rossi added.
In October last year, Alpine unveiled the 2023 A110 R. It is a lighter and more hardcore version of the coupe capable of sprinting to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in just 3.9 seconds. It has a starting price of more than €100,000 (around $109,000 with the current exchange rates) in France.
