Ranked #181 car in the UK · Hot hatch (EV) · 1,518 units sold last year
The Alpine A290 is the sporting, hot-hatch reinterpretation of the Renault 5 - Alpine's first electric car, with a 52kWh battery, up to 220PS, Brembo brakes, bespoke Michelin tyres and a sharpened chassis. It keeps the 5's charm but adds genuine pace and a playful, F1-inspired steering wheel. A fun, distinctive electric hot hatch that rivals the Abarth 500e and Mini Cooper Electric, with real Alpine driver appeal.
WLTP
The short version
Forecourt score
Value 1 · Reliability 34 · Insurance 22
The Alpine A290 loses value faster than most cars and is dearer to run than most. Its MOT-based reliability is good, 70 out of 100, ahead of 34% of the cars we track. On three-year value retention it ranks better than 1% of models.
The Forecourt score blends how this car ranks against the catalogue on value retention, reliability and insurance cost (weighted 40/40/20). Higher is better; running cost is not yet folded in.
Eligible for £3,750 off — UK Electric Car GrantBand 1
Applied at point of sale by the dealer — no application needed. Details on gov.uk.
Estimates are tuned to the version you choose.
Fuel
Electric
Power
220 ps
Drivetrain
FWD
Efficiency
3.8 mi/kWh
The volume Alpine A290 - the hot electric Renault 5, 220 PS, 52 kWh, ~226 mi WLTP. Bespoke chassis tune, wider track, proper Alpine steering. The fun-EV bargain. Heat pump standard.
Tidy and well looked-after for its age — the typical car.
Remembered as you browse other cars.
Optional — fills in the exact year and ULEZ status for your specific car. The registration isn’t stored.
Estimated market value
How we got this number — click for the breakdown, or to challenge it.£22,750
Range £18,000 – £27,950
medium confidence
How a 2024-registration Alpine A290 loses value over time.
Based on the 2024 car with 15,000 miles you entered above — worth about £22,750 today — here is the cost of owning it for the next 5 years, at roughly 7,500 miles a year.
5-year total
£17,348
Per year
£3,470
All-in per mile
£0.46
Fuel per mile
7.1p
If a company carAround £36/mo Benefit-in-Kind tax at the 40% rate (£18/mo at 20%) — 3% band (EV)
If you're a company-car driver
At 3% BIK, this would cost a 40% taxpayer about £36/month in company-car tax (£18/month at 20%) — one of the strongest cases for choosing an EV via salary sacrifice. Full BIK table below for context.
Best age to buy — around 6 years
A 6-year-old example loses roughly £1,900 a year — under half the £4,900 a one-year-old sheds. The steepest drop is behind it.
Uses current UK pump and home-charging prices (DESNZ weekly), typical-driver insurance and manufacturer service intervals. "Fuel per mile" is just the energy input — so an EV at ~9p and a diesel at ~22p make running-cost comparison direct. A guide; your own costs will vary.
Where this car ranks against the 340 vehicles in our index — higher is better.
Percentile rank across our full index. A measure is shown only where the data spreads meaningfully across the index.
How the available versions compare on price, running cost, and the headaches each tends to develop.
Top spec — 220 PS, performance pack, distinct trim. The pick for buyers who want real Alpine character. ~30 mile range loss vs GT due to sportier suspension/tyres and higher power.
Watch for
Mid-trim — 178 PS, performance brakes, sports tune. The sensible value pick if budget matters but GT feels too compromised.
Watch for
Entry trim — 178 PS but with standard brakes and milder tyres. The question is: at this price, why not just buy a Renault 5 Iconic Five for £4k less? Justified mainly by the badge.
Watch for
Fuel/energy costs based on this week’s UK averages (w/c 22/06/2026) · Petrol 153.3p/L, Diesel 172.5p/L, Electricity 27.0p/kWh · DESNZ
Group 30 of 50 (upper-mid — pricier to insure) · Comprehensive · 3 years NCB
Indicative annual comprehensive premiums for this car, by driver age band and risk profile. Pick the combination closest to your circumstances.
Estimated annual premium · typical, age 33-39
£1,360/ year
Roughly £113 per month
Typical
Average UK driver — 3 years NCB, average postcode, no recent claims.| Age band | Lower risk | Typical | Higher risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age 17-25 | £3,101 | £3,876 | £5,039 |
| Age 26-32 | £1,618 | £1,904 | £2,323 |
| Age 33-39Selected | £1,197 | £1,360 | £1,605 |
| Age 40-49 | £1,016 | £1,129 | £1,309 |
| Age 50+ | £906 | £1,006 | £1,188 |
How we estimate this
Indicative annual comprehensive premium estimates. The 'Typical' figure represents an average UK driver in each age band; Lower and Higher risk show the realistic spread driven by factors UK insurers legitimately price on (postcode, occupation, claims history, NCB, voluntary excess, modifications). Based on 10,000 miles/yr, £250 voluntary excess, and the no-claims bonus selected above. Always get individual quotes before buying.
Adjust the annual mileage to match how you'll actually use the car. Insurance is what you selected above (age 33-39, typical risk, 3 yrs NCB).
Routine service
£320
Annual main-dealer service
Major service
£270
Every 2 years, annualised
Road tax
£195
Standard rate, post year-one
Electricity
£533
3.8 mi/kWh, 27p blended
Insurance
£1,360
Age 33-39, group 33
Clean-air zones
✓ ULEZ compliantBased on London ULEZ standards — Birmingham, Bath, Bristol, Sheffield, Glasgow and other UK clean-air zones generally follow the same rules.
Excludes depreciation and unscheduled repairs (see next section).
Drawn from owner reports and warranty data. Filtered for relevance to 15,000 miles.
Watch now
Failure typically happens around your current mileage.
Upcoming
A known weak point — but you haven't reached its usual mileage yet.
Already due
Past its usual failure mileage. Either already fixed, or about to.
Inherited from R5/Micra platform. Symptoms: navigation crashes, Assistant unresponsive. Multiple OTAs progressively address.
Some UK chargepoints fail first handshake. Re-plug usually works. AmpR Small platform pattern.
Same TSB as R5 — 12V management firmware update. Check VIN against TSB list at PDI.
Performance pads need 500-1000 miles to bed in. Squeal during light braking is normal early on.
Emergency release in boot if electronic latch sticks. Platform pattern across AmpR cars.
Front door seal noise above 60 mph. Cosmetic but irritating on a £35k+ car.
"Parts low/medium/high" indicates how easy the replacement part is to source — discontinued or specialist parts mean longer workshop time and bigger bills.
Euro NCAP's independent crash-test rating for the Alpine A290, from its 2024 assessment.
The Alpine A290 is a twin to the 2024 Renault 5: it shares the same structure and safety equipment.
Independent crash-test data from Euro NCAP. Star ratings reflect the test protocol of the year shown — newer protocols are stricter, so a 5-star from 2024 represents a higher bar than a 5-star from 2014.
Good
Estimated from segment/platform - too new for MOT data
MOT outlook
Insufficient MOT history at this car's reference age — too few tests to compute a reliable percentile.
Safety recalls
Manufacturers occasionally issue safety recalls to fix a fault free of charge. You can check whether the Alpine A290, or your exact vehicle, has any outstanding recalls on the official DVSA service.
Check on GOV.UKOpens the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency recall checker. Choose the make, model and year of manufacture — no registration needed.
A general indicator from UK 2025 theft data and this car’s characteristics — not a prediction for any one vehicle.
Whole-car theft
Around average
Theft risk is around the UK average. Like most modern cars it has keyless entry, so relay theft is the method to guard against.
Parts theft
Lower
As an electric car it has no catalytic converter, so the most common parts-theft vector doesn't apply.
Worth doing
Whether driving a Alpine A290 into a UK clean-air zone will cost you anything. Rules use the same Euro standard across most zones — petrol from 2006 and diesel from 2015 onwards are exempt; pure electric is always exempt.
| City | Area | Daily charge | Likely outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | All of Greater London (within the M25) | £12.50 | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
| Birmingham | Inside the A4540 Middleway | £8.00 | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
| Bristol | City centre and part of the Portway | £9.00 | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
| Glasgow | City centre | — | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
| Edinburgh | City centre | — | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
| Aberdeen | City centre | — | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
| Dundee | City centre | — | Likely exempt Battery-electric — exempt everywhere. |
Model-level guidance only. To check a specific registration, use the official gov.uk clean-air zone checker. Zone charges and boundaries are set by local councils and change over time.
Winter range estimates assume ~5°C ambient with cabin heating; figures from manufacturer cold-weather testing where available, otherwise derived as a fraction of WLTP. DC times are manufacturer-claimed 10–80% on the headline charger; real-world sessions on UK rapids can be slower. Charging cost is a full battery at the home/blended electricity rate; public rapid charging costs more.
UK charging network
As of 2026-04-01, the UK has 119,080 publicly available EV chargers, up 12.6% on the prior year (13,281 added in 2025). 23% of those are rapid (50 kW+) or ultra-rapid (150 kW+), so the network can support both home and on-route charging.
3-8 kW
50%
Standard
8-50 kW
27%
Standard plus
50-150 kW
12%
Rapid
150 kW+
11%
Ultra-rapid
Source: Department for Transport / Zapmap · Released 2026-05-21 · DfT statistics
What HMRC's Benefit-in-Kind charge looks like if you ran this Alpine A290 as a company car, by tax year and income-tax band. Calculated from a CO₂ of 0 g/km and a WLTP electric range of 226 miles, using £35,500 as the P11D value.
EVs sit at the bottom BIK band — currently 3% — so this is one of the cheapest ways to take a company car.
| Tax year | BIK % | Tax @ 20% | Tax @ 40% | Monthly @ 20% | Monthly @ 40% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 3% | £213 | £426 | £18 | £36 |
| 2026-27 | 4% | £284 | £568 | £24 | £47 |
| 2027-28 | 5% | £355 | £710 | £30 | £59 |
| 2028-29 | 7% | £497 | £994 | £41 | £83 |
| 2029-30 | 9% | £639 | £1,278 | £53 | £107 |
P11D value is approximated from the latest new price; the exact figure on your tax code will depend on options fitted. The 4% diesel surcharge applies only to non-RDE2 (pre-2021) diesels — we assume RDE2 compliance for current models. Bands and rates from HMRC's Autumn Budget 2024 confirmation through 2029/30.
How well-supported Alpine is across the UK — a practical read on how easy servicing, parts and warranty work will be to find.
Franchised UK dealers
~20
Limited network
Performance niche
Network size relative to the UK's largest (Alpine is 0.4% of all franchised outlets)
A limited network — you may need to travel for main-dealer servicing, though independent specialists can often help.
For context, the UK has roughly 4,500 franchised car-dealer outlets in total, plus about 15,500 independent garages.
Approximate figures, curated from public UK industry sources (NFDA, Car Dealer Magazine). Franchised networks shrink year on year — these indicate network size, not an exact count.
Of every Alpine A290 ever registered in the UK, this is what's actively on the road, parked off the road on a SORN, or gone for good.
Total ever registered
1,498
Currently taxed & on road
1,483
99% of all registered
SORN (off road)
15
1% of all registered
Scrapped or exported
0
Source: DfT VEH0124 vehicle licensing statistics (year-end 2025) · Updated 1 Jul 2026
Common questions
Same underpinnings
Shared B-segment platform across Renault, Nissan and Dacia. Supports petrol, hybrid and EV. Different badges, often substantially different residuals, but broadly the same mechanicals and repair cost profile.
Common Module Family B · Renault-Nissan Alliance
Common questions
Answers are generated from this car's Forecourt data — DVSA MOT records, DfT licensing statistics and our valuation model — and update with the weekly data refresh.