The Projet Spécial 1 sits inside a dedicated limited-run pillar separate from Alpine's road car lineup.
Alpine showed the PS1 at the Paris Motor Show on October 12. Short for Projet Spécial 1. The teaser clip, released days before the reveal, folded open the front fascia to expose five recessed lighting elements — four short rectangles flanking one longer bar. The car sits low and wide, a prominent rear wing visible even in partial shadow.
The PS1 is the first public output from what Alpine calls its "special projects pillar" — a third structural strand distinct from its Everyday Extraordinary range (A290, A390) and its Icons range (A110). According to Alpine's official reveal materials, published October 2024, that pillar is reserved for exclusive, limited-production vehicles, following the A110 R Ultime of 2023. Where Ferrari's XX programme or Porsche's Sonderwunsch offer analogous bespoke tiers, Alpine's version is notably younger, established only within the current product cycle.
What the Teaser Actually Showed
Alpine released a short video clip on October 6, 2024, at approximately 12:30 pm Eastern Time. The clip ran for several seconds and focused exclusively on the PS1's front fascia. A panel folded downward. Five lighting elements emerged: four short rectangular lamps and one longer strip. A thin static light strip sat below, apparently always exposed. Then a broad flash lit the car's body. The silhouette that appeared — low roofline, wide haunches, a prominent wing — read closer to a track-oriented machine than a road car. Alpine confirmed the October 12 Paris reveal date in the same release. No powertrain details, no weight figure, no price indication accompanied the footage. The European performance brand expansion context matters here: Alpine is one of several revived or repositioned European sport marques attempting to establish multi-tier model architectures within a single decade.
Three Pillars, One New Addition: The Range Arithmetic
Alpine currently operates across three product pillars. Pillar one — Everyday Extraordinary — holds two models: the A290 and the A390. Pillar two — Icons — holds one: the A110. Pillar three — Special Projects — now holds at least one: the PS1. That gives Alpine a minimum of four distinct model nameplates active or in development simultaneously. The A110 R Ultime, the last special-projects vehicle before the PS1, was capped at 110 units globally, priced from approximately €300,000 in markets where it was offered. If Alpine replicates that volume ceiling for the PS1, total special-projects output across both cars would reach no more than 220 units — a figure that keeps residual values high but limits revenue contribution. By contrast, the A290, Alpine's volume electric hatchback, targets mainstream sport-compact sales. The gap between 110 bespoke units and whatever the A290 sells annually represents the deliberate width of Alpine's commercial range: exclusivity at one end, accessibility at the other.
Philippe Krief's Canada Pivot
Philippe Krief, Alpine's chief executive, stated earlier in 2024 that the brand plans to launch in Canada in 2029. That single sentence carries weight. Alpine had previously announced a United States entry by 2025, a timeline confirmed by multiple Renault Group investor communications during 2023. New import tariffs imposed in 2024 disrupted that plan, according to Renault Group's own public statements to analysts. Canada, which faces a different tariff environment, became the alternative. Krief's framing — "plans to launch in Canada in 2029" — is careful. It sets no volume target, no dealer-count commitment, no homologation timetable. What it does establish is that North American ambitions remain active even as the specific route changed. The five-year horizon to 2029 also coincides, not accidentally, with the expected rollout of Alpine's new Alpine Performance Platform architecture, which Renault Group engineers are developing to carry dual rear electric motors.
A Platform Without a Production Car Attached to It
Alpine's next-generation Alpine Performance Platform — the APP — is described in Renault Group planning documents from 2024 as carrying dual rear electric motors and targeting a kerb weight of approximately 1,497 kilograms (around 3,300 pounds). That platform is intended to underpin the successor to the A110. Here is what has not been confirmed: whether the PS1 uses the APP, a derivative of it, or something else entirely. Alpine has not said. The A110 Sculpture concept, also shown at Paris 2024 and unveiled by Alpine the previous month, is described as previewing the next two-seat fully electric sports car — which is presumably the A110 successor on the APP. The PS1 is described separately, under the special projects pillar. If both cars exist simultaneously, Alpine will be running two distinct electric sports car programmes in parallel, one volume-oriented, one exclusive. That split has not been explicitly acknowledged by Alpine, and the relationship between the PS1's engineering and the APP remains an open question.
What the Paris Showcase Means for Atelier Alpine
Alongside the PS1 debut, Alpine used the Paris Motor Show to expand Atelier Alpine — its personalisation programme — to the A290 and A390 for the first time. The A290 receives a new Collection trim pairing Blanc Nival paint with a black roof, 19-inch Snowflake alloy wheels, and silver brake calipers. The A390 GTS gets Bleu Tempête Mat bodywork, a black roof, and new sport seats. For Renault Group's finance division, personalisation programmes carry above-average margin. If Atelier Alpine achieves even a 15 percent take rate on A290 and A390 deliveries — a figure consistent with comparable programmes at Audi's Individual division and BMW's M Performance accessories unit — the revenue contribution per car rises meaningfully without altering the base bill of materials. Alpine has not published projected Atelier uptake figures. But the timing of the programme's expansion to volume models, alongside the PS1's debut, suggests the brand is attempting to establish a coherent luxury-services layer across all three pillars simultaneously.
Alpine was formally re-established as a standalone road-car brand in 2017, with the revived A110 reaching customers in 2018 — its first production sports car in over two decades. The PS1 marks the brand's seventh year of continuous model expansion since that relaunch. Watch for APP platform homologation filings in EU type-approval records through 2026 and 2027. The complete Alpine model history and specifications are catalogued in the Global Auto Index manufacturer database.
