Alpine A390 vs Audi e-tron

The Alpine A390 costs £1,490 more than the Audi e-tron. For that premium it adds 136 miles more WLTP range, 70 kW faster peak rapid charging and 64 kW more power. The Audi e-tron is not just cheaper - it also offers 128 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Alpine A390 comes out ahead overall.

The Audi e-tron is £1,490 cheaper to buy. The Alpine A390 is cheaper to charge, roughly £176 a year versus £232 for the Audi e-tron, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Audi e-tron comes out roughly £1,210 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 288 miles for the Alpine A390 and 174 miles for the Audi e-tron - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Alpine A390 goes roughly 114 miles further between charging stops. Both rapid-charge to 80% in a similar time, around 25-30 minutes.

The Alpine A390 is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 50 mm narrower than the Audi e-tron. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 515 mm of total clearance for the Alpine A390 and about 465 mm of total clearance for the Audi e-tron. The Alpine A390 also turns in a 1.2 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Alpine A390 and 84% for the Audi e-tron. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.