Alpine A390 vs Polestar 4

The Alpine A390 costs £1,400 more than the Polestar 4. For that premium it adds 94 kW more power and a 2.3s quicker 0-62mph time. The Polestar 4 is not just cheaper - it also offers 46 miles more WLTP range. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Alpine A390 comes out ahead overall.

The Polestar 4 is £1,400 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £176 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Polestar 4 comes out roughly £1,320 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 277 miles for the Polestar 4 - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. 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 123 mm narrower than the Polestar 4. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 515 mm of total clearance for the Alpine A390 and about 392 mm of total clearance for the Polestar 4. The Alpine A390 also turns in a 0.6 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 Polestar 4. 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.