Revealed: the fast, sporty, tri-motor Alpine A390

Well we expected the new Alpine electric five-door to be fast. And it is. The surprise, and relief really, is that it isn't a crossover. It's lower than a VW ID.3, and barely taller than a Golf.

It's low proportions give it a chance to feel properly sporty. So does the fact it has three motors. The rear two are independent for each wheel, so it can dance through corners.

Most of all perhaps, we've got Alpine's record. While the A110 is a very different thing – petrol-driven and analogue versus electric and digital – at least it shows they know what they're aiming at. The little A290 EV hot hatch is pretty fine too.

Best estimates put the A390 at somewhere between £60k-70k. The lower of those prices gets 400bhp, 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds and plenty of equipment. Step up to the top rung and it's 470bhp, 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and even more kit including bigger 21in wheels and very fancy French Diavelet hi-fi.

The body design is a striking departure from everyone else's EV five-doors. From the side, it has more than a soupçon of stretched-out A110, thanks to the belt-line crease dropping towards the rear wheel, and the distinctive window and roof lines, with the characteristic bubble glass tailgate behind.

At the front it goes its own way, with no obvious reference to the small inner lamp pairs of the A110 and A290 (themselves are echoes of the 1960s rally spotlamps). The A390 has multiple triangular LEDs to give the face a pixie-dust look. A wing surface runs between the headlamps along the upper nose, with an air channel beneath it. Aero matters in this car.

Although the third motor adds some weight, it's not too much because both rear motors are smaller than one big one would be. Also, their torque vectoring means, say the engineers, that they didn't have to bother with many of the other heavy and expensive systems rivals add to boost agility.

So the A390 has no four-wheel steering. No active anti-roll either. And no active differential because, well, no differential at the back. There aren't even adaptive dampers; Alpine sticks with passive ones, as on the A110 and A290.

It was a deliberate choice to keep the wheelbase short, again helping the thing to turn. That dimension is the same as a Megane's, rather than the longer Scenic's. That makes things frankly a little cramped for rear leg room, but this isn't meant to be a Volvo EX90.

Don't by the way imagine this is just a slinkily clothed Megane with extra motors. The suspension arms are different to give a 6cm wider track, there are new cast aluminium subframes, the electronics are different, the battery chemistry is different, the braking is different. Deep changes.

The interior story is much more like the A290, with two big screens and lots of physical switches. It runs the Renault Group's version of Google maps. In our experience that has provided comfortingly accurate estimates of remaining range – it takes into account altitude and the speed of the roads you'll be driving on. It also effectively plans longer routes with the minimum charging downtime, sniffing out quick chargers that are unoccupied when you approach.

Talking of charging, it'll get from 15-80 per cent in about 25 minutes. Both versions have a useful 89kWh battery, using cells of unique formulation to be able to chuck out the necessary 1200 amps to keep all three motors fed at full power.

All of that gives it a range of 325 to 347 miles WLTP. The more expensive one is the less rangey, as is usual. And as it's a car and not a hulking SUV, we're hoping for sensible real-world efficiency as well as a very fine steer.