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Alpine will decide whether to offer an ICE-powered A110 later this year.

If approved, it would join the EV and arrive in approximately two years.

US market appears to be a key driver pushing Alpine towards ICE.

Alpine used the Goodwood Festival of Speed to introduce a development mule known as the A110 Future. It hints at the upcoming electric sports car, which might not be EV-only.

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Speaking to PistonHeads , Alpine CEO Philippe Krief said development will be wrapped up by October and “by then we will know how much it will cost to develop a petrol version.” With that figure in hand, the company will be able to decide whether or not to build an ICE-powered version late this year. If the gassy variant is given the green light, it could take around two years to put into production.

More: Alpine Previews Next-Gen A110 With Electric Mule

While that’s a ways off, the executive noted taxes on ICE-powered cars are “extraordinary” in France. To deal with this, the company is reportedly considering pricing the car either high or low. Going the high route would enable the gas-powered model to appeal to wealthy customers who could shrug off high taxes, while going the low route would broaden the customer base, but likely result in some tradeoffs such as reduced performance or equipment.

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That isn’t the only issue at hand as Alpine is still eyeing a potential launch in the United States . Americans aren’t sold on EVs, so a petrol-powered A110 would be critical to the company’s success stateside.

While only time will tell what happens, Krief said the electric variant should be good for “at least 20 minutes of track time at maximum speed.” That doesn’t sound like much, but he claimed that would be at least as good as the old gas-powered model, when you factor in tires and the need to let the brakes cool off. The electric variant is also expected to gain around 661 lbs (300 kg) compared to the outgoing coupe.

Alpine

Krief went on to hint at a high-performance special edition, which could borrow a few cues from the Renault 5 Turbo 3E . While that remains to be seen, the publication said the new Alpine Performance Platform has been designed to underpin at least two-generations of the A110.

Alpine hasn’t revealed much about the car, but has previously said the redesigned A110 will have two battery packs and a 40:60 weight distribution. The model will also have 800V technology and “high energy density cells to reduce weight and charging time.”

The batteries will power a new 3-in-1 rear e-axle with dual electric motors, which promise to deliver “exceptional torque, performance, and ultrafast control.” We can also expect an aluminum suspension with “new integrated braking and steering systems.”

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Goodwood Run

At the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the company added the A110 will be able to outperform the “best of today’s combustion sports cars.” Alpine went on to say 25% of the car’s overall battery capacity will be mounted up front, while the remaining 75% resides in the rear. They’re housed in a “high-pressure die-cast aluminum casing that contributes directly to the car’s structural stiffness.”

The firm went on to say customers can expect Active Torque Vectoring 2.0 and a Wheel Slip Torque Control system that helps to reduce understeer. They’ll be joined by an intense “e-motor-driven sound,” which can be heard during its run at Goodwood.

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A Molniya drone struck without any visible control antenna at all

Only a camera and computer were found inside the recovered drone

Ukraine believes navigation and targeting may now run without humans

A Russian Molniya drone recently struck a Ukrainian facility without a visible control antenna, and the strike appeared unusual to observers tracking the weapon's design.

The recovered drone carried only a camera and an onboard computer, a stripped configuration that suggests a move toward greater autonomy in strike sequences.

Radio technology specialist Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister, said the finding points toward navigation and targeting functions operating without a human operator.

A familiar pattern from the V2U platform

The same onboard setup had previously appeared only on the V2U drone , a separate Russian platform used earlier in the conflict.

"The enemy is using the V2U platform to train its neural network," Beskrestnov wrote, adding that the repeated hardware marked a troubling development.

"The UAV had only a camera and a computer. This is where everything is heading. Navigation, target acquisition and the attack will become fully autonomous."

Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, through its War&Sanctions portal, already classifies the V2U as an AI-enabled loitering munition, though independent confirmation remains absent from other sources.

This overlap raises fresh questions about whether commercial processors, originally built for civilian robotics, are being repurposed for battlefield autonomy across programmes.

There are speculations that Russia's drone programme is drawing on Nvidia's Jetson Orin platform, a processor widely used in hobbyist and commercial drone projects for onboard image recognition.

That kind of chip could plausibly allow a drone to identify and track targets without needing constant external human guidance.

However, no independent laboratory analysis has publicly confirmed the specific chip inside the recovered Molniya drone.

That gap leaves the true source of the hardware unclear, and points to a wider question of how such components may be reaching Russian manufacturers at all.

COTS components complicate export controls

Russian reliance on commercial off-the-shelf, or COTS, hardware appears to expose a persistent gap in international sanctions enforcement efforts worldwide.

Such components are typically manufactured for civilian markets and often reach restricted buyers through intermediaries, complicating end-use verification across borders.

Once a chip like the Jetson Orin leaves its original supply chain, tracing its final destination becomes difficult for export control agencies to manage in practice.

Manufacturers rarely sell directly to sanctioned states, so a single chip can pass through several resellers before reaching its final buyer.

Each additional link in that chain makes it harder for regulators to know exactly where a processor ends up.

This loophole means sanctioned states can potentially acquire advanced processors meant for hobbyist or commercial use, then repurpose them for weapons development.

A chip designed for a drone hobbyist's camera rig can, in principle, end up guiding a loitering munition instead.

Closing that gap would likely require tighter monitoring of resellers and distributors rather than restrictions on the manufacturers themselves.

Export control regimes were largely built around large, traceable defence contracts rather than small consumer electronics shipments.

That mismatch leaves regulators several steps behind when commercial parts are diverted toward military applications.

Until distributors face stricter tracking requirements, similar hardware may keep surfacing in future weapons regardless of existing sanctions.

Via Ukrainska Pravda