For more than ten years, Renault Group has been a pioneer in the field of electric vehicles and has acquired a wealth of valuable experience in all areas of the automotive industry. It is therefore quite natural that the Alpine teams began thinking about the subject very early on.
The arrival of Luca de Meo and the announcement of a 100% electric range at Alpine gave a clear direction for the work of the teams and an opportunity to work on electrics in an exploratory way. In the “restomod” spirit, the A110 has become the ideal platform for this research work, a bridge between a prestigious past and an even more ambitious future.
Thus, the target is clear: to electrify the next Alpine vehicles, and why not starting by the A110, a paragon of sportiness known for its light weight and agility, within a realistic budget.
As a Renault Group brand, it was natural, for this new project, to look first at the parts and technologies already available in-house. The battery modules are identical to those of the 100% electric Mégane E-Tech. However, to achieve optimum weight distribution and to accommodate the twelve battery modules, it was necessary to design specific battery casings for the A110 and to adapt the internal architecture. Four modules were therefore placed at the front and eight at the rear. To meet this challenge, the engineers allowed themselves to position these modules in the space in a ‘atypical’ fashion.
Despite the addition of these twelve modules, the total weight of the Alpine A110 E-ternité remains particularly light with an increase of only 258 kg, thanks to a contained mass for the battery pack (392 kg).
The A110 E-ternité offers even more, with new equipment developed simultaneously by the Alpine engineers.
- A LONG-AWAITED OPEN ROOF
For a long time, the demands for a convertible A110 have been heard. Alpine decided to take on one more challenge at the same time. The difficulty was above all to find the solution to quickly integrate a removable roof on the structure of the Alpine A110. The Alpine engineers thus imagined a simple and light solution, without impacting the rigidity of the production A110, with two roof shells injected with recycled carbon. A component designed and built entirely in-house.
- CENTRAL SCREEN & AUDIO SYSTEM
Alpine engineering has made it a priority to develop a vehicle that is as beautiful as it is efficient. The cockpit must therefore reflect this as well. The team succeeded in combining the design requirements with the electronic architecture ones. The solution: the wiring was done directly with the dashboard and the same interface computer was used. The result lives up to expectations and also integrates:
– a state-of-the-art audio system with 8 speakers including a subwoofer to recreate a surrounding sound thanks to one central and two rear new speakers.
– an innovative multimedia system using the driver’s personal tablet as the multimedia screen, in order to display the usual environment and apps of the user. This solution provides an always up-to-date operating system combined with the latest screen technologies.
- INNOVATIVE MATERIALS
Both lightweight and more environmentally friendly, the materials used on some key parts are made from flax. A second E-ternité demo-car was also developed and displays this new technology applied to parts such as the skin of the bonnet, roof, rear window, grille, seat shells and rear skirt. The material comes from the Terre de Lin company based near Dieppe (Normandy, France). As strong as carbon-fibre and with better acoustics, flax is a material of the future.
This new experience also makes it possible to prepare for the future. Indeed, the design of the parts is now compatible with the various composite materials, which means that the same mould can be used to produce carbon, glass or flax fibre composite.
