Enjoy Lightweight Sports Cars? Renault Might Bring Alpine to the U.S.

• Alpine might bring its sports car, the A110, to the U.S.
• The brand is currently looking to partner with AutoNation, a huge network of U.S. car dealers.
• If Alpine succeeds, the A110 is just the first of many cars from the French automaker we could see.

Renault is reportedly looking at ways to enter the U.S. market with its sports car arm, Alpine. AutomotiveNews recently reported that Renault SA could work with AutoNation, one of the largest dealer networks in the country, to bring Alpine to the United States and help build out a nascent brand that only sells a few thousand vehicles a year.

For those unaware, Alpine makes one car at the moment. It's called the A110 and is a lightweight, purpose-built rear-wheel-drive sports car. According to Alpine, it weighs less than 2,500 pounds and is powered by a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes 249 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of torque mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Its styling is an homage to the original A110, a rally-bred sports car that won six rounds of the World Rally Championship in 1973.

Before this, Automotive News reported that Alpine believes the U.S. is a key market for the brand's growth. Even though sports cars are a seemingly ever-shrinking niche, the Porsche Cayman/Boxster duo and the C8 Corvette sit largely unchallenged in the affordable mid-engine sports car segment. A new option from a European manufacturer might entice buyers, and Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has set a big sales target of 150,000 units a year for Alpine by 2030. The U.S. could be a big part of that expansion.

Edmunds says

Oui, s'il vous plaît! Yes, please!