French performance brand Alpine's plans to bring its small and light sports car to the US have just slammed on the brakes. During the Renault Group's first-quarter earnings call, the company's CFO said that major shifts and instability in the US market were behind the change. He said that it wasn't the right time to spend money to enter the country, putting the plan on hold for now, if not permanently.
He called the decision a "perfectly normal" one, as he said that the group is trying to reduce costs. The Renault Group reported a 3.0 percent decline in automotive revenues for the quarter. Sales at Alpine were up 96.4 percent, though that was almost entirely due to the release of the A290 - an electric hot hatch not likely to make it Stateside.
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