UPDATE: According to The Malaysian Insider, Tony Fernandes says the JV will eventually produce city cars and a crossover SUV. The first product, codenamed CT02, is expected to roll out in 2015 and for Malaysia, there will be a CKD version.
Here’s an unexpected piece of news. Renault and Caterham Group today announced their decision to join forces to design, develop and build future sports vehicles. The fruits of the marriage will be “distinctive, differentiated, and carry the respective DNA of Alpine and Caterham Cars”, which means that the legendary Alpine brand, bought in 1973 by Renault, will be revived!
Jean Rédélé, pilot, businessman and automotive pioneer, founded Alpine in 1955. The sleek 50-year old A110 in the pic above is probably the most recognisable Alpine sports car. The younger ones who are old enough to know what “Top Trumps” is would probably remember the sharp lines of the Alpine A310 and A610. During its existence, Alpine sold 30,000 sports cars and was world rally champion in 1973, among other racing achievements.
This partnership will see Caterham Group, headed by Malaysian Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, own a 50% stake in the Automobiles Alpine Renault, currently 100% owned by Renault. A JV company, The Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham, will be created in January 2013 and managed by CEO Bernard Ollivier.
The Dieppe plant in France, the historical home of the Alpine that most recently churned out Renault Sport hot hatches like the Megane R26 and Clio RS, plays a main role in the partnership as it’s where the future sports cars will be built. The plant has produced more than 400,000 vehicles since 1969.
As for the cars, Renault and Caterham will combine their skills to build models in large and small series, in order to widen their positioning in the sports car market. The objective for each company is to launch its own vehicle within the next three to four years. There will be a newly-created joint Engineering Department that will split the required engineering and industrial investments on a 50-50 basis.
Caterham is of course most famous for the lightweight, bare-bones Seven, although it makes more modern machines like the SP/300.R as well.
“This innovative partnership with Caterham embodies a longstanding ambition: the creation of a sports car with the Alpine DNA. It carries both opportunities for the Dieppe plant and the development of its historic know-how,” said Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Renault.
Fernandes, the other expert dealmaker, said: “I have not felt as excited about a new venture since I launched AirAsia in 2001 and I want to thank Carlos Ghosn and Carlos Tavares (Renault COO) and everyone in our new Renault family for having the belief in Caterham Group to create this partnership. Many people doubted us 11 years ago when we launched our airline and I am sure that there will be doubters again this time, but we will not fail your trust.”
“Formula 1 was always our entry point into the car business. Our original plans to develop a partnership with Lotus were put aside in spectacular and well documented style, but now we have a far better chance to develop Caterham Cars in partnership with Renault,” added Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, Caterham Group deputy chairman and long time business partner of Fernandes.
It’s quite a promising partnership from a car enthusiast point of view, and we eagerly wait for the results, which should be interesting!
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Better JV than Proton and Honda?…..maybe
lol, u so sure that JV will happen at all?
It was MoU, and as with most Proton’s MoU in the past, it’s nothing more than goreng harga saham session.
great piece of deal!
now everyone can have a sports car?
IN UR DREAM!! or maybe Tony will start selling this new JV cars as a Air Asia Ticket.. starting Price with no seat, no steering wheels, no light on panel etc.. haha :P
Kudos Tony. Good luck in the new venture. Maybe more objective than LOTu$.
A new sport car that are affordable and fast for Malaysians. And yet reliable as well. If PR didn’t win this year.
Now, just waiting for Caterham to release a new sport car. Hopefully, PR win MAN!
U just wan PR to win just to buy car?..wow
A song which features a collaboration between two artists always grabs more airwaves ….
best of luck to the two
This makes sense. Alpine cars traditionally had tubular steel backbone chassis, clothed in a fiberglass shell. I think Caterham uses tubular chassis too?
BTW: The A310 was even more beautiful than the A110 pictured above:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Alpine_A310
More like the cars from GTA Vice City.
Very cool though!
Mohd,you are right..Alpine cars did have a tubular steel backbone chassis..and a fiberglass shell,yes i think the Caterham uses a tubular chassis too..it has to be,judging by how it looks.
I almost bought a 1973 Alpine A110 rotting in a barn in Texas after it’s last race in 1974,it had been sitting there though under a tarp when i found it in 1994,it was my summer vacation so i went on a national road trip to find cars to restore astride my concours condition restored 1970 Dodge Challenger 426 Hemi 4 speed,in Hemi Orange of course.
It was tough for me to actually find cars to restore (it was my hobby) coz people used to chase me and try to get me to pull over and will always ask me to sell my Challenger instead!!
At that time i was attached to Ford in Dearborn,Michigan developing the Fox body Mustang SVT Cobra.But the dude who owned the Alpine was asking too much for it,USD 26k in 1994 was way too much,but it had the optional Weber twin chokes still new unused in a box.
The previous owner raced it in Europe before shipping it back to the States,it has never been crashed but there were a few race dings here and there.
But it was complete as an race spec Alpine A110,beautiful but too expensive.Even the Alpine dude asked me to sell my Challenger.
Those were the days.Cheers.
From the people who brought us Godzilla, Fernandes is really making a gain here. I hope he can show DRB-Hicom a thing or two.
Tubular spaceframe chassis offers minimum investment especially for low volume production.Caterham could offer Renault their expertise & facilities in tubular spaceframe chassis production.In exchange, Renault can offer Caterham stable supplies of their engines/powertrain.
If this team up succesful, sure give wake up call to proton management that always do the No Action Talk Only..i wish them succesful…
This is what happen when you separate business from politics
In my opinion, this is just a PR thing for Tony, for his brand image only. He once said that his low-cost airlines is for rakyat, and he rejected the skybridge proposal, parking charges not paid bla…bla…bla…yet he have the money to invest to QPR and a F1, and now a motoring company?
However, it is a good for Caterham and Renault if they could produce cars for ordinary peoples, not focusing to a niche market only (read: rich and famous). I challenge you Tony, please prove to us that “Now everyone can own a Megane”, or something like that la is a reality. If that happened, I will vote for you for our next Menteri Pengangkutan.
U need to separate between airasia money with tony money…2 diff entity..
Carlos Ghosn do the Vettel fingers. No wonder Nissan-Renault so powderful under his command.
All the best to Tony. Really hope things will work out fine. Go Tony!
Previously, it is between Infinity (Nissan Top Brand) and Lotus bring in the Emerg-concept. Now another Malaysian company is in Renault-Nissan radar. Maybe next tan Chong will have their hand in this. An Alpine born in Serdang maybe. Good for the economy.
Probably has nothing to do with me but somehow i feel good reading this. Kudos to Tony.
i want that a110….sexy classic
Wish Tony all the best! Hope the venture works out.
RM1 – tires balancing plate
RM10 – tires nut
and the list goes on….
I hope this project turns out better than his Caterham F1 cars!
wow! Now everyone can drive! Cheers
Tony, Go Go Go !!!!
Wishful thinking…
Guess Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Carlos Ghosn have the same leadership style…both r mastery in turning around plans…back then Tony bought a defunct airline n turn it into a megastar airline (Airasia) and Carlos Ghosn brought back Nissan into profitability when it was in brink of collapse…Their ‘resume’ in sport cars category- Tony had brought back Lotus into F1 field back then n now he had put Caterham into F1 for the first time…Tony had also revived some Caterham cars ..Carlos Ghosn , the man behind of the next generation skyline -Nissan GTR..Carlos Ghosn had proven to the world it could go faster than a Porsche 911 at the Nürburgring track…now i personally believe they can create superb sport cars..
from “everyone can fly” to “everyone can drive sports car”. hmm…. whats next? “everyone can own landed property”? haha Tony for PM anyone?