Alpine's 2028 supercar will be a turbo V6 hybrid with 1,000bhp

The Alpine supercar is go. It will launch in 2028, powered by a high-performance petrol hybrid V6, even though by then most or all of Alpine's rapidly growing range will be electric.

Alpine boss Philippe Krief hinted in a couple of Top Gear interviews last year that he's been bubbling up the idea. His boss, Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo, announced it formally at the unveiling event for the Alpine A390 at its hometown of Dieppe, France, yesterday.

Krief then filled in some enticing detail. Total output, he says, will be about 1,000bhp. If you worry about definitions, even in today's horsepower-glutinous climate that puts it on borderline hypercar territory.

Krief explained it will have a V6 turbo driving the rear wheels, and a pair of electric motors at the front. Those motors provide front torque vectoring just as the A390's two motors do at the rear. The car will use both aluminium and carbon fibre in its construction, he says.

The powertrain is being developed by a new Renault division called Hypertech, based at its World Endurance technical centre at Viry-Chatillon south of Paris. Krief, who is also R&D boss for the whole Renault Group, says it will be the same squad of engineers working on the supercar powertrain as the race cars.

Will the supercar look much like the Alpine Alpenglow concept (pictured above)? No, he says. That was more like a Le Mans entrant. "This is a road car, very different." And he doesn't yet know the name. "That's not my job."

"This car has three objectives," said Krief. "One is to bring Alpine up. You need this kind of car as it holds up all the rest of the range. Second, it's a laboratory of innovation, for the supercar, then for Alpine and then for the whole Group. Third, it will make a good business."

Worth remembering Krief has experience here. He developed the Ferrari 458, then went to Alfa as engineering boss of the Giulia and Stelvio, then went back to Ferrari to run R&D. No surprise he mentions the Ferrari SF90 in setting out the stall for the Alpine supercar.

Launch is due for 2028, said Krief. So there's a lot to do, especially as he stresses this one is in addition to the five more EVs – after the A290 and A390 – that Alpine will launch before 2030.

If it seems a huge stretch for Alpine to shift into hypercars, Krief reminds TopGear.com that parent brand Renault took just days to sell out a run of nearly 1980 copies of the £150k R5 Turbo 3E electric car.

Luca de Meo tells TopGear.com Alpine is moving in the right direction. Sales of the A110 have grown considerably as it ends its life. "In this sort of exercise you've got to be patient. You need three generations. Our world is not patient any more. You have to manage residual values, distribution, the culture."

Will he be patient with Formula One? Is it OK for Alpine to be running around in the mid-field? Is there a solid fiscal justification for staying, or do you just like walking the grid on a Sunday afternoon talking to film stars?

"Especially for a team like Alpine, you have to build credibility for people that are passionate, Formula One nuts. You only have 10 teams. It's an achievement to be there. For me it's important that this adventure doesn't end. It's a cornerstone of the Alpine project. We can afford it. My job is to make money, to invest, to pay our people."