Alpine A4810 Concept – hydrogen-powered supercar design from IED students

Alpine, along with students completing their master’s degree in transportation design at Turin’s Europo di Design have revealed a hydrogen-powered sports car called A4810 Concept. Completed entirely by students, overseen by faculty staff and Alpine’s own design team, the concept doesn’t preview a future production model or design language, but is intended to show-off the talents of the next generation of automotive designers. 

The concept’s design is based around a hydrogen powertrain, with an engine and fuel tanks designed like those in a ‘typical hypercar’. This suggests that the car is combustion-based like Toyota’s recent motorsport prototypes, rather than a fuel-cell which fundamentally will vary the packaging demands. 

Highlights include the use of negative spaces within the car’s bodywork, similar in principle to that found on the Ford GT and Lotus Evija. This is seen most dramatically in the car’s sills and the bodywork’s relation to the glasshouse, where the windscreen, roof and door glass have been amalgamated into a single canopy-like structure. 

At the intersection of the two main body surfaces over the rear wheels rises a freestanding buttress that connects the rear haunch to the canopy, which is painted in a contrasting silver colour. There are obvious visual references to Alpine’s road car heritage, such as the centreline that runs up the length of the A4810 and its four-headlight graphic, but it might also form a preview of Alpine’s future activities in endurance racing. At 5091mm long, 2010mm wide and only 1055mm tall, the concept is within a few millimetres of a modern LMDh racer in all dimensions. 

As a source of inspiration for a pure design exercise like this, Alpine’s long history of both competition and road-going cars is ideal. This type of student project serves to signal the future of car design as this next generation of talents progress into the automotive industry.