French automotive brand Alpine Cars has joined forces with fashion house Lacoste to unveil the Alpine x Lacoste Beware of the Crocodile – Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye, a one-off electric rally car that combines competition engineering with fashion-inspired design. Developed as a unique collaboration between the two French brands, the vehicle merges Alpine’s motorsport expertise with Lacoste’s distinctive design language. Announced on 29 June 2026, the collaboration also includes a co-branded apparel capsule collection and a campaign film titled The Test, featuring actor Pierre Niney and Pierre Gasly, driver for the BWT Alpine Formula One Team.
Alpine based the project on the A290 Rallye, the brand’s dedicated customer racing platform. The collaboration focuses on integrating Lacoste’s visual identity into a fully functional rally vehicle while maintaining Alpine’s motorsport engineering.
Alpine x Lacoste Introduce a One-Off Electric Rally Car
French brands Lacoste and Alpine come together through a collaboration rooted in a shared philosophy of innovation, performance, and functional design. Founded by tennis legend René Lacoste, Lacoste revolutionized sportswear by combining athletic performance with timeless elegance.
Alpine, established by Jean Rédélé, built its reputation on lightweight sports cars and motorsport success, particularly in rally racing. Drawing from these parallel legacies, the collaboration emphasizes lightweight engineering, precision craftsmanship, technical innovation, and performance-driven design. The project integrates automotive engineering and fashion design into a unified concept, where each element serves both aesthetic and functional purposes.
Based on Alpine’s Most Performance-Oriented Electric Hatch
Alpine selected the A290 Rallye, its dedicated electric competition vehicle. The decision means the collaboration starts with an existing motorsport platform.
Engineering highlights include:
- Rally-specific chassis tuning
- Optimised suspension geometry
- Wider tracks for improved stability
- Competition-developed aerodynamics
- Reinforced braking system
- Rally-focused electronic calibration
- Electric powertrain with immediate torque delivery
- High-speed cooling optimisation
The vehicle represents Alpine’s approach to customer electric motorsport while demonstrating how EV technology can be adapted for rally competition.
Exterior Design Analysis
Lacoste’s Crocodile Becomes the Design Theme
The entire exterior design revolves around one iconic element, the red tongue of Lacoste’s crocodile logo.
Instead of applying logos across the bodywork, designers transformed the crocodile into an architectural concept that influences color, lighting, and graphics.
Exterior highlights include:
- Bluish-white exterior inspired by Alpine mountain landscapes
- Mineral finish recalling snow and ice
- Carbon fibre aerodynamic components
- Enlarged rally arches
- Roof air intake
- Large rear spoiler
- Competition diffuser
- Exposed carbon detailing
- Custom wheel design
- Revised lighting graphics inspired by a crocodile’s eyes
The body retains the proportions of the A290 Rallye while introducing graphic treatments developed jointly by Alpine and Lacoste’s design teams.
Interior Design
A Monochromatic Red Cockpit
The cabin adopts an entirely different atmosphere.
Designers describe the interior as placing the driver “inside the crocodile’s mouth,” achieved through an almost completely monochromatic red environment.
Major interior features include:
- Lacoste Petit Piqué Fabric: The seats and door panels use Lacoste’s signature petit piqué textile, the same fabric associated with the brand’s polo shirts.
- Embroidered Details: Embroidery has been produced by Potencier, the historic workshop known for manufacturing Lacoste’s embroidered crocodile logos.
- Joint Branding: A sculpted Alpine × Lacoste emblem appears throughout the interior as a bas-relief.
- Crocodile References: Designers incorporated 290 crocodiles throughout the vehicle in subtle graphic and sculptural details.
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies
Beyond styling, several production techniques distinguish the project.
3D-Printed Rally Seats
The Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye incorporates advanced manufacturing through rally seats featuring structural components produced by ERPRO using industrial 3D-printing technology. Instead of conventional solid structures, the seats use lightweight lattice geometries that reduce overall weight while enhancing comfort and energy absorption.
This manufacturing approach also enables complex internal designs that would be difficult to achieve with traditional production methods, improving material efficiency without compromising strength. The use of 3D-printed components reflects both Alpine’s focus on performance engineering and Lacoste’s emphasis on intelligent, lightweight design, making the seats a key technical highlight of the one-off rally car.
Structural Treatments
The interior also features a series of technical structural treatments that emphasize the A290 Rallye’s competition-focused character. Red anodized structural components create a bold visual contrast while highlighting the vehicle’s exposed engineering, complemented by motorsport-grade materials selected for durability and performance.
Lightweight construction methods are applied throughout the cabin to reduce unnecessary mass, and functional surface treatments prioritize practicality over decorative finishes. Together, these details reinforce that the Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye is engineered as a genuine rally machine with authentic motorsport credentials.
Electric Rally Technology
The A290 Rallye platform has been developed specifically for electric competition.
Key engineering characteristics include:
Instant Electric Performance
The electric drivetrain delivers immediate torque response, an advantage during rally acceleration and corner exits.
Rally-Specific Software
Dedicated electronic calibrations are designed to maintain consistent performance under demanding competition conditions.
Chassis Development
Suspension geometry and chassis rigidity have been engineered specifically for rally stages, focusing on precision and stability across varied terrain.
Aerodynamic Efficiency
Functional aerodynamic components contribute to:
- Improved cooling
- Additional downforce
- Greater high-speed stability
Capsule Collection
Complementing the one-off Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye, the collaboration extends into fashion with a co-branded capsule collection inspired by the shared worlds of motorsport and tennis. The range includes polo shirts, T-shirts, lightweight technical apparel, outerwear, accessories, and other co-branded sportswear designed to balance functionality with everyday style. Reflecting the same design philosophy as the vehicle, the collection emphasizes lightness, freedom of movement, precision, and performance while blending Lacoste’s signature sporting elegance with Alpine’s motorsport identity.
Campaign Film: The Test
To bring the collaboration to life, Alpine and Lacoste have released a short campaign film titled The Test, produced by Ninety Films, the production company co-founded by Pierre Niney. The film stars Niney alongside Pierre Gasly, BWT Alpine Formula One Team driver and Lacoste ambassador, with both appearing as themselves. Instead of showcasing technical specifications, the campaign uses humor, playful interactions, and dynamic driving sequences around the one-off Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye to illustrate the partnership’s central theme where high-performance engineering meets French elegance and style.
Executive Perspectives
Eric Vallat, CEO of Lacoste, described the project as an expression of French ingenuity, emphasizing that both brands have historically pursued performance through innovation and attention to detail.
Antony Villain, Vice President of Design at Alpine, stated that the collaboration extends beyond speed alone, combining competition engineering, lightweight design and timeless French aesthetics into a single automotive project.
Product Design Analysis
The Alpine × Lacoste collaboration integrates design, engineering, and manufacturing at multiple levels.
The project stands out through:
- Use of a genuine rally competition platform
- Motorsport engineering was retained throughout the build
- Fashion-inspired materials integrated into functional components
- Industrial 3D-printed interior structures
- Consistent crocodile-inspired design language rather than decorative branding
- Limited production as a one-off concept vehicle
By combining rally engineering with textile innovation and French industrial design, the Beware of the Crocodile – Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye demonstrates how automotive collaborations can move beyond appearance to influence materials, manufacturing techniques and user experience while maintaining authentic motorsport performance.
Product Overview
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Beware of the Crocodile – Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye |
| Vehicle Type | One-off electric rally car |
| Base Model | Alpine A290 Rallye |
| Category | Customer racing EV |
| Collaboration | Alpine Cars × Lacoste |
| Launch Date | 29 June 2026 |
| Production | One unique vehicle |
Credit: Alpine x Lacoste
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