French performance car brand Alpine has Ferrari in its sights – not only on Formula One racetracks, but in the showrooms, too.

Speaking to The Independent, Alpine CEO Phillipe Krief said: “We are more on the Ferrari side in terms of volume than on the Porsche side. We aim to be more niche, because we want to preserve the exclusivity and the profitability for all models.”

What that doesn’t mean is that Alpine is chasing Ferrari in terms of prices, though. The cheapest Alpine model, the A290, starts from just £30,245, although the brand has shown Ferrari-baiting concept cars like the Alpenglow and will be battling the famous Italian brand in WEC sports car racing as well as in Formula One.

The A390 crossover, with a starting price of £61,390, is already selling well in the UK – so well in fact that 30 per cent of all A390s are sold here, according to Krief. “You like hot hatches,” he said. “It’s a land of car lovers and electric doesn’t seem to be a problem here.” Krief also confirmed that 80 per cent of all Alpine customers are new to the Renault Group, of which Alpine is part.

Next up for Alpine is an all-electric replacement for its iconic A110 two-seater sports car, although it has already been confirmed that a 2+2 version, as well as a convertible, will be launched in due course. “Now we are three cars,” said Krief. “With a new A110 we stay at three, but then we will launch the fourth because we are going to launch a cabriolet.”

However, Krief also revealed that further new Alpine models are also planned so that the company can hit its growth targets. “After that we need to find a five, a six and so on. This is the way we are going to grow.”

Those plans include a big SUV model, but first Alpine will have to find a new platform – the brand’s advanced APP (Alpine Performance Platform), which will be used for the new A110, wouldn’t be suitable.

“For the big SUV, the question will be when we will go in the US, where we would need that. The second point is that today we do not have a platform for a big SUV. So we have two problems to solve: find the right platform and go to the US.”

Asked whether APP could be used for a large SUV, Krief said: “You can, but it’s compromised. If I have to do that now I have to size the car for 2.2 tonnes and so I will overload it. I need to increase the width – length isn’t a problem, but the width is a big problem.”

Before heading to the US, Alpine plans to sell in Canada – and for a good reason. “We are going to Canada before the US because it’s our training ground,” said Krief.

Alpine used the Goodwood Festival of Speed to tease the new A110, running the A110 Future concept car up the famous hill climb as a preview to the all-electric model. Krief also gave a few hints of what to expect of the new A110 when it arrives and how it points to future Alpine cars, especially the cockpit.

“First, thanks to our technical choice, we keep the family feeling of A110, making a design even more timeless, but which is quite futuristic. And so, this will be better than the actual A110.

“Then we have to beat the [current] A110 in all what makes it a success: the lightness, the feeling. We are developing a perfect integration between mechanics and electronics because this is a point. You don't anymore do a chassis with pure mechanics and then the tyres and that's all. That’s not true anymore.

“And then the third one is that because we don't want our sports car to do only five minutes, 10 minutes, and then after you have to charge. We size everything, especially the battery in order to be able to have at least 20 minutes track records at the full maximum speed and maximum lateral acceleration. This will make the car at least as good as the actual A110. And I do believe that it will be even better in this kind of performance.

“The fourth thing is the cockpit. On the cockpit, it's again, where the [current] A110 was made a sports car, but the cockpit is not that extraordinary. Here we did huge, huge, huge work on that in order to have a timeless cockpit, not with all what you can find, a lot of screens and things like that. It’s very intuitive where the driver is at the center.

“This cockpit announces the family feeling for our future cars. “

Krief went on: “The last part is about the personalisation. We are going to offer as many colours as possible, as many interiors as possible, and then maybe more. And what we didn't do on A110, but what we are doing on this car, even if it's difficult to predict the future, all what we are doing on the platform is also forecasted to last two generation.”

Krief also reassured us that the new A110 would be a bespoke sports car and not rely on parts from parent company Renault. “95 per cent of the components of the new A110 are new,” he said. “95 per cent are not coming from the group. And so, it's a huge effort for us – it's a huge first step.”

When it comes to the sound of the all-electric A110, Krief also promised something very special that we’ll hear at this October’s Paris Motor Show. And Alpine won’t be trying to mimic the noise of an internal combustion-engined car.

“That’s exactly the point – it's a new sound,” he said. “You like Rolling Stones, but you can like also Mozart. And here anyway, in terms of sound, we are going to show something at the Paris Motor Show.

“The more I drive this kind of car, the more I'm convinced that you can be sports without the sound, without the gear. We have to find something, but not it’s necessary to reproduce, or I would say not at all, to reproduce the existing feeling.”

Krief also promised more tie-ins with the Formula One team, including the team’s title sponsor from next season, Gucci.

“Gucci, beside the contract we have with them for Formula One, it’s a huge opportunity for conquest – we are certainly going to do a limited edition,” he said. “It fits perfectly with the A290. With Mini 70 per cent of their customers are women – we are about 20 per cent. And so there’s huge potential there. We think that with the imge of Gucci we can attract female customers better that what we are doing right now.”