Alpine Alpenglow nods to future endurance racing design

First revealed in 2022, the Alpine Alpenglow gives a glimpse into the brand’s future motorsport ambitions. More than just a static concept, the first rolling prototype, the Alpenglow Hy4, was presented at the 6 Hours of Spa earlier this year, equipped with a four-cylinder hydrogen combustion engine. The next version will be fitted with a V6 hydrogen engine and aptly named the Alpenglow Hy6.

Ahead of the third Alpenglow iteration which is due to break cover at the Paris Motor Show, Car Design News spoke with design director, Antony Villain, to understand the significance of this concept and hydrogen technology for the future of the Alpine brand. Villain calls Alpenglow a programme rather than a project, pointing to the continuous development of this idea and the technology underpinning the concept.

Car Design News: Walk us through how the Alpenglow came to be.

Antony Villain: It started with an idea we had with our CEO, Luca de Meo, to show what our strategy for the brand was in terms of technology and design. We called it ‘manifesto’ to showcase the value of our brand and project it into the future. In terms of technology, we wanted to explore the hydrogen combustion engine. Of course, we are doing EV production cars but we wanted to have sustainable technology in combustion engines as well.

To trigger the designers we started with the equation of hydrogen combustion: 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O + Energy. We turned the equation into materials: frozen because the gas is compressed at 700 bar; vapour because you have water vapour coming out of the exhaust pipe; liquid because water can be liquid as well; and an explosion to give the warm effect of the internal combustion engine. We turned these into mood boards to give us material, colour and shape ideas.

Another idea was to do something that looked like an asteroid flying through the air where it’s super hot at the front of the car and there’s a tail behind. The idea of the blue at the rear was to visualise the vapour, we wanted to show people that it’s not CO2 gas, it’s vapour.

CDN: Where did the concept design start?

AV: When we design cars at Alpine, we start from the driver and go from the inside to the outside. The challenge, which is one of the main features of the car, was how to manage the hydrogen. Two hydrogen tanks sit alongside the driver, so when we put this all together and the engine behind, we had the basic layout.

CDN: Why did Alpine choose hydrogen combustion?

AV: It was focused on motorsport first. There are several things we need, for instance, in Le Mans you cannot race with electric cars, they don’t have the sustainability of performance. You need performance that is sustainable throughout the 24 hours, so EV is not the solution.

Secondly, for the emotion, experience and exhilaration, you need sound. We wanted to have combustion engines so we had to resolve the problem of CO2 emissions and find a technology without or very little CO2 emissions.

A hydrogen engine was one of the best solutions because when it burns you just get water from the exhaust and a very tiny amount of CO2, below one gram, from the lubrication oil burning. It’s a sustainable technology on the condition that it uses green hydrogen. In the next two to three years the 24 hours of Le Mans will open up the potential for this hydrogen technology in competition.

CDN: What were the main challenges around designing a vehicle with a hydrogen powertrain?

AV: Storing hydrogen. For the moment we are using hydrogen as a gas at 700 bar which is the maximum pressure we can reach. We are also working on liquid hydrogen which could be another solution as you can reduce the space needed to store it but you have to manage the temperature. Another idea we are working on is to store hydrogen as a gas in polymorph tanks. At the moment we use off-the-shelf cylindrical tanks, but we are developing tanks that can fit the shape of the car which could give a bit more freedom.

CDN: What were the key influences?

AV: The driving experience was inspired by Formula 1. The form has to follow the function, that’s super important for us, so the car is sculpted by airflow. There are a lot of bypasses for the air to create very dramatic and organic shapes. Coming back to this asteroid idea, we exploded the light to make it very spectacular.

We were also inspired by Le Mans cars from the ‘60s – we had the Alpine A210 and the A220 – and that was the era of the long tail. This is something we really love at Alpine, for instance we had a chance in 2015 to design a car for Gran Turismo, the Alpine Vision Gran Turismo, and this had that same long tail feeling. At the rear of the Alpenglow we have three main ingredients: the long tail; the blue lights with the exhaust pipe inside; and the transparent wing. Aesthetically, we wanted to keep the car very pure. We needed a spoiler at the back for the downforce but we wanted to keep it almost invisible and very integrated.

CDN: How does the wheel design reflect the rest of the car?

AV: We wanted to have wheels that make the car look like it’s in motion even if it’s static. The way we spread light at the front of the vehicle, which we call cosmic dust, we applied the same idea to the wheels. They need to be super aerodynamic, so to create this feeling of motion we spread the cosmic dust graphics on the wheels too to give the impression of movement.

CDN: How did you approach the interior design?

AV: The interior is race inspired. When we saw the car and we were walking around it we realised you see a lot of what’s under the windscreen. We designed the dashboard from the exterior because you almost don’t see it from the interior. That’s why we created this big triangle with the light, which also shows the engagement of driving; you can also have light dynamics to give you feedback on your driving experience. You’ll see this triangle in another show car soon, it’s symbolic.

CDN: Are we likely to see a future version of the Alpenglow competing in motorsports?

AV: Why not? If the development of the engine is going well and if the regulations for Le Mans open the door to hydrogen, this engine could be relevant for race cars maybe in five years, not before. Today, Le Mans is really pushing for hydrogen technology and they are really supporting our programme so we could show the path to others and be front runners for this technology.