Alpine previews new design language with dramatic Alpenglow hydrogen hypercar idea

Alpine has taken the wraps off a hypercar idea that alerts the design path the French efficiency marque will take for future highway and racing fashions.

And with its hydrogen powertrain, the idea additionally serves as a imaginative and prescient for a possible clear future for motorsport.

The idea is named the Alpenglow, the title borrowed from the reddish glow that always seems on the snow-covered peaks of the Alps round dawn and sundown, and it is a single-seater that appears to mix parts from race automobiles that compete in System 1 and top-level endurance racing, two classes the place you discover Alpine competing right now.

The similarity to an endurance racer particularly is not any shock. Alpine is growing an LMDh sports activities prototype for an assault on the World Endurance Championship beginning in 2024, and the automaker has confirmed the brand new race automotive will draw on the Alpenglow’s design.

For Alpine’s future highway automobiles, search for parts just like the wheel sample, square-shaped steering wheel, and entrance gentle signature to transition to manufacturing. The sunshine signature is a contemporary tackle Alpine’s conventional headlight association of 4 particular person items, and a toned down model of it’s anticipated to characteristic on Alpine’s GT X-Over crossover due in 2025.

The crossover is considered one of three electrical autos Alpine has within the works. The others embody a sizzling hatch associated to the upcoming Renault 5, which we’ll see in 2024, and a sports activities automotive to interchange the A110, Alpine’s sole product at current. The sports activities automotive is being developed in partnership with Lotus and is due round 2026. None of Alpine’s autos are headed to the U.S., because the model would not function right here.

Alpine additionally stated the “beneficiant, chiseled shapes” of the idea trace on the silhouettes of future highway automobiles from the model, and the ideas use of carbon fiber, together with recycled carbon fiber, might be one other side that transfers to the world of manufacturing.

Alpine did not present a lot element on the Alpenglow’s powertrain, other than the idea that includes a rear-mounted internal-combustion engine operating on hydrogen. The identical setup featured in a student-designed hypercar idea Alpine confirmed in March.

Inside-combustion engines may be made to burn hydrogen with little or no modification, with the ensuing emissions largely being water. A handful of automakers, together with Alpine, sees this as an answer for motorsport in a world of zero-emissions, when the hydrogen is generated in a sustainable method. Different automakers backing the concept embody Porsche and Toyota.