Renault planning Alpine sports car and new flagship

At the start of last year Renault announced an ambitious target of launching 26 new models by the end of 2009, but apart from the introduction of the new Laguna there hasn’t been much of a buzz from Renault at recent major car shows. Things won’t be quiet for long because at next month’s Geneva show, Renault will be unveiling the all-new Koleos SUV as well as a possible new concept car.

Further, Renault’s marketing boss Patrick Blain revealed back in October that there were plans to revive the legendary Alpine brand and now the carmaker’s product chief Patrick Pélata has described one of the new models as being a sporty roadster. "Think Mazda MX-5 or even Smart Roadster and you are on the right lines," he explained to AM-Online.

Pélata went on to confirm the development of the new sports car, telling reporters “we are working on a sports car project and you will see this within the next few years. We still have the Alpine name which we would like to use again and ideally we would like to have an affordable sports car on a RWD platform that is great fun to drive.”

Other models include a production version of the Laguna Coupe Concept (pictured), due at the end of the year, as well as a new flagship that could revive the Vel Satis and Avantime lines. The source claims Renault’s global marketing head Stephen Norman admitted the carmaker is also planning a luxury model above the Laguna to compete with premium cars from Peugeot and Citroen.