Monday 5th November 2012

Renault and Caterham join forces

50-50 share in new Alpine-Caterham sports car brand based in Alpine's Dieppe factory

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Renault has confirmed that it is going into partnership with Caterham to develop a range of new sports cars to be built at the old Alpine plant in Dieppe under the branding 'Societe des Automobiles Alpine Caterham'. Alpine, currently 100 per cent owned by Renault, will go into an equal 50-50 partnership with the Caterham Group and, following an injection of state cash from the French and regional government, develop and build cars in Dieppe.

Alpine factory currently builds outgoing Clio 200

The Alpine factory had been kept alive as a development and production facility for the Renaultsport range of hot hatches and associated racing cars. Production of the outgoing Clio 200 was a Dieppe mainstay due to the car's wider track meaning it wouldn't fit down the standard Clio line. But with the controversial new model becoming a more mainstream product Dieppe was in danger of redundancy, the new deal throwing a lifeline to the 300-plus workers and securing the engineering know-how based on decades of building hot Renaults for both road and track. What must they be thinking in Hethel, just hours after Kimi Raikkonen took victory in a black and gold Renault-powered 'Lotus' F1 car...

Renault boss Carlos Ghosn said the partnership realises a "longstanding ambition", namely "the creation of a sports car with the Alpine DNA." Whether that means a production version of the Alpine A110-50 concept or not remains to be seen but Renault COO Carlos Tavares says it will "embody the very essence of Alpine" and "could become a reality within the next three or four years."

SP/300.R shows ambitions beyond Seven

For Caterham's part Tony Fernandes gushed "I have not felt as excited about a new venture since I launched Air Asia in 2001" and that he wishes to replicate this business model to create "exciting, affordable products that marry our interests in F1 and technology". Dato Kamarudin Meranun, deputy chairman of Caterham Group, offered a more hardheaded view, saying, "Formula 1 was always our entry point into the car business. Our original plans to develop a partnership with Lotus were put aside with spectacular and well documented style but now we have a far better chance to develop Caterham Cars in partnership with Renault." Ouch.

Given that it has supplied its hybrid running gear from the Evora 414Eto Renault partner Nissan for the Infiniti Emerg-econcept you'd have to say this is an opportunity missedfor Lotus, especially given the apparent shared synergy between it and Alpine in terms of ethos, background and expertise. That said, there's probably only room for one production line in the partnership Dieppe and Hethel together would only have resulted in over capacity and a duplication of expertise. Chuck the French state aid into the equation and you can see why Dieppe was always going to be at the heart of the deal.

Alpine brand has great heritage

Caterham, keen to expand its road car product beyond dependence on the Seven range, seems a more logical fit and partnership with Alpine fills a gap between the grassroots, Seven-based range and the more high-tech, F1inspired SP/300.R.

Experienced in production of both mass-market models like the current Clio 200 and more specialist products like the old Megane R26.R, the Dieppe plant will be able to build cars in "large and small series", the press release going on to say that the "objective is for each company to launch its own vehicle in this market within the next three to four years." A GT86/BRZ style rebranded product for different markets then? It's too early to say but the fact the A110-50 concept was based on the racing chassis of Renault's Megane Trophy racer and was pleasingly old-school and back to basics (no hint of hybrids or any of that nonsense there!) suggests Alpine and Caterham share a similar philosophy. Caterham has long talked of a new road car range in the £40-£50K bracket, light in weight, minimalist and driver focused and earlier in the year new bossGraham MacDonald confirmed that this was still the plan. And now they might just have the means to see it through.

A110-50 concept a raw, back to basics supercar

Exciting times. Unless you live in Norfolk.

 

[GranCab]

Good news!

Hopefully it will result in a fully resolved, exciting and affordable car or two.

[GTRene]

could be good news...
would love to see the A110-50 concept car comes to live...
and other LW sports cars ofcorse.

[Ollieb7]

The timing for Caterham could be just right as the Elise is getting a bit long in the tooth and the Evora is just too expensive.

[365daytonafan]

Sounds great in theory. I'm curious as to what exactly Caterham brings to the party other than Tony Fernandes' funding?

[kambites]

Interesting, it'd be nice to see another competitor in the Ginetta G40 sort of market if that's the way they go.

[kambites]

365daytonafan said:

Sounds great in theory. I'm curious as to what exactly Caterham brings to the party other than Tony Fernandes' funding?

I'd guess they bring the ability to set up a RWD chassis, of which Renault have little recent experience.

[Hellbound]

I read that the new RS Clio's will still be made at Dieppe.

[Maldini35]

Can't help but feel excited by this story.

[bosscerbera]

kambites said:

Interesting, it'd be nice to see another competitor in the Ginetta G40 sort of market if that's the way they go.

Why? Who's buying them?

Projecting low volumes and £40-£50K price will be a kiss of death.

[Raven Flyer]

It takes a rare skill to come up with something as ugly as that A110-50.

[David87]

So, just to clarify, the Caterham version will be built in France? As much as I like the idea if the car, I prefer my Caterhams to be built in, err, Caterham. If it's the latter, where do I sign?

That said, I went on a Dieppe factory tour when I had my R26.R and it's a brilliant place.

[M@1975]

Thats quite a cool partnership, would be good to see more affordable RWD cars being produced by them.

[kambites]

bosscerbera said:

kambites said:

Interesting, it'd be nice to see another competitor in the Ginetta G40 sort of market if that's the way they go.

Why? Who's buying them?

Projecting low volumes and £40-£50K price will be a kiss of death.

Because if I ever want to replace the Elise, that seems to be the only option I have at the moment. The G40 is about £28k not 40. I doubt anything that comes from this collaboration will be cheaper than that.

[BertBert]

I can't get very excited about something that's 3-4 years away though.
Bert

[Megaflow]

It is great news.

But, surely it has to be tempered by the fact nethier company are exactly flushed with cash, and the kind of market this car is going to go into, assuming it's going to cost ~£50k and be a two seater coupe, so it is going to be up against the likes pf Porsche Cayman, Mercedes SLK, BMW Z4, etc, which means a development and tooling bill well into the hundreds of millions of pounds.

[dbanes]

We love our RenaultSport 197 (Clio), it's a blast to drive but it is starting to fall apart at just 5 years old, let's hope one of the parties in this knows how to build quick long lasting cars.

[ayseven]

I sincerely doubt Caterham as we know it, will have much to do with it, except for the badge. That's Tony's way. How many of Caterham's 7 staff have anything to do with the F1 team? I am guessing 0.

[vrooom]

In glipse, caterham getting an hot renualt engines? please no.

[British Beef]

Exciting indeed, I cant wait to see and drive the cars that will come out of this partnership!!!!

[Twincam16]

What about the Infiniti Emerg-E? That was Lotus through-and-through. Will that be made in a separate partnership?