Alpine’s upcoming electric sports cars will use in-wheel motors as part of a radical plan to reduce weight below that of an equivalent combustion engine sports car, Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has confirmed.

“It will change everything,” de Meo said of the APP (Alpine Performance Platform), which has been designed by the premium brand for up to four separate models-  including a sports car due next year to replace the A110, previewed on the sidelines of the A390 SUV's unveiling. 

In-wheel motors offer a range of benefits to Alpine when trying to package a sports car for the modern era. “With a motor in the wheels, you have more room for either luggage or footwells, or for sliding your seat backwards or forwards,” Renault Group design head Laurens van den Acker told Autocar. “The A110 is fine for a weekend but if you want to appeal to a bigger audience, you need more room.”

In-wheel motors have forced the designers to slightly widen the car's body, van den Acker added.

Alpine plans “three or four” models off the APP platform, de Meo said. Along with a two-seat coupé and a roadster, Alpine will also launch a four-seat Porsche Taycan rival called the A310, which De Meo described as a “sports sedan”.

The use of in-wheel motors frees up space for Alpine to put the batteries in a different location than the traditional place of under the floor, a format that has proven restrictive for sports cars given the need to force the driver to sit higher.

The aluminium platform will save up to 150-250kg compared to equivalent electric sports cars, according to Alpine, but further details remain under wraps.

Parent company Renault will use in-wheel motors first in the Renault 5 Turbo 3E - a £135,000 electric hyper-hatchback that's due in limited production next year. That car's two rear-mounted in-wheel motors combine to produce a claimed 3540 lb ft of wheel torque. The all-aluminium platform was developed by Alpine, suggesting it previews the APP.

In-wheel motors also allow individual control of separate wheels, known as torque vectoring. Alpine has debuted the technology with its new A390 electric crossover, which uses two inboard motors on the rear of the car.

Issues with in-wheel motors include the extra unsprung weight and the potentially damaging forces put through the motor, for example when the wheel hits a pothole, and the design has yet to make it onto a production car.

They featured in the innovative Nissan Bladeglider sports car, which remained a concept, and were meant to have powered the since-cancelled Lordstown electric pick-up, supplied by Slovakia’s Elaphe. The Dutch Lightyear solar car was also to have used Elaphe in-wheel motors before it too succumbed to financial realities.

Suppliers include the UK’s Protean, which has launched its fifth-generation model. Protean believes that by the middle of next decade, in-wheel motors will be a €20 billion (£17bn) market globally, but admits the high cost is still an issue. Supercar hybrid motor supplier Yasa is also working on in-wheel motors.

David Francis