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Renault boss on slow Alpine A390 sales: ‘I don’t care’
► Alpine A390 selling well behind forecasted numbers
► But Renault Group CEO doesn’t care about that
► 80 per cent of A390 owners are new to Renault Group
The A390 was meant to be to Alpine what the Cayenne was and remains to Porsche: the cash cow family car that enables more investment in the ‘fun’ sports car projects that couldn’t happen without the extra cash injection.
But since its launch at the end of 2025, the electric A390 has failed to register with buyers in the way Alpine hoped. Though it’s still early days, fewer than 250 are being produced each month at Alpine’s factory in Dieppe, northern France. In comparison, Porsche sells three times as many Macans each month in the UK alone.
So what’s next? Some grand plan to boost sales and get it in front of more potential buyers? Absolutely not according to Renault Group CEO Francois Provost. Speaking at the Paris Motor Show, he said ‘I don’t care’ how many A390s Alpine sells if its customers are happy.
Provost said: ‘When Alpine launched A390, I said to Phillipe [Krief – Alpine CEO]: ‘you are much too bullish. Your volume will be much lower than that, and you should be much more reasonable because the car is super good’.’
The Group CEO said Alpine needed to be ‘humble’ about its sales ambition and to try not compare itself to ‘German premium sporty cars’, which we can assume are Porsches.
Provost said that the A390 was considered among the same basket as these ‘German premium sporty cars’ but that it loses out when it comes to ‘monthly rent’, which is higher for the Alpine.
‘For me, it’s a long journey [to success] so we have to work hard. So, we have to keep a cool head, nurture the USP of A390, do not discount, do not do crazy things.’
Provost said that that he was sure that A390 sales would increase, but that he didn’t care if volumes remained flat.
‘Keep steady and I’m sure the car will increase, maybe not at the level expected for sure, but I don’t care. I don’t care because this is a 20-year journey. Maybe I will be the one to do half the journey but I will not kill the brand, the DNA, the asset by being too nervous.
‘Maybe at the end we discover that the potential of this car is only a third of what Alpine thought, and so what? If the customer is happy, if we find a good way to position the car and it nurtures the brand, I’m fine with that.’
When asked if Alpine could live with selling only 200-300 A390s per month, Provost gave an instant ‘yes’ in reply.
‘Today it’s 250 a month. Personally, I think it will grow, but it will take time. For Alpine, we give priority to value versus volume. So, instead of my competitors, I’m not putting hundreds and thousands of short-term rentals, self-registrations and stuff like this.’
Alpine ended production of the A110 earlier this year as it prepares to launch the next-generation model on its new Alpine Performance Platform (APP) at the end of 2027, though it’s having more success with the Renault 5-based Alpine A290.
The electric hot hatch is now selling around 1,000 units per month, with ’30 to 35%’ of those coming to the UK, according to Alpine CEO Phillipe Krief, who has overseen the introduction of the new models outside of Alpine’s original sports car remit.
‘Almost every A390 we sell is to a new customer,’ says Krief. ‘So, for us it’s all conquest because it’s not in our customer basket. What is true is that we have a ramp up that was slower than forecasted.
‘Of course, the point of this car [the A390] is to make money, but it’s also to increase the awareness of the brand and the desirability, and thanks to this car, 80% of the customers are new not only to Alpine but the Group.’
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