You might think that in a period of global austerity, all car manufacturers would be sending out financial statements full of doom and gloom, but we’ve recently reported on a bumper 2022 for Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Maybe that's to be expected. After all, both are established players sitting at the highest possible end of the market, and the richest consumers are yet to feel the pinch of this latest bout of financial turbulence (quite the opposite in some cases). It’s not just those two, though. Alpine’s most recent results show its new car registrations are up by 33 per cent.
And before you say '33 per cent of nothing is still nothing' the actual number of new Alpines registered was a record 3,546. Admittedly that’s still low, considering Bentley sold 15,174 models in the same period – each probably costing at least three times as much as an entry-level A110 – but Alpine is starting to look like a car company now. Back in 2020, with just 1,527 registrations to its name, that wasn't so. It seemed more like a waiting game for the inevitable plug-pulling moment. Alpine cites two factors as the catalysts of change.
First was Renaulution, which was Renault’s global restructuring business plan that was announced in 2021. Second, is its drive to launch special editions of the A110, which are more profitable as well as helping to drive sales. Those top-end models accounted for two-thirds of its overall sales in 2022.
Moreover, many of the brand's key markets show significant growth as well, with the UK up 43 per cent, a 42 per cent boost in Germany, and a 39 per cent improvement in Japan. Notoriously nationalistic France increased the least of those in percentage terms, but still accounted for the bulk of sales in 2022. The home market took 2,138 units in total, which represented an increase of 32 per cent.
Expansion is also helping to secure a brighter future, with exports to Slovenia and the Czech Republic now made official. Those new dealers made up some of the 40 new outlets that were opened up globally in 2022, which takes Alpine's total number of outlets to 140. It’s set to continue that advance, with more new dealerships coming in 2023 and further new markets added, including Morocco.
There’s no news on any additional specials yet, but with the success of the three limited editions that were introduced last year – the A110 GT J. Rédélé, A110 Tour de Corse 75 and A110 R F. Alonso, all sold out in less than thirty minutes – don’t be surprised to see more joining the stripped-out £90,000 A110 R that was shown at the end of last year. While it’s been mooted that will be the last iteration of the A110 before the new BEV model arrives in 2026 – based on the Alpine E-ternité prototype – Alpine bosses have not categorically ruled out further variants before then.
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