Alpine A390 vs DS N°8

The Alpine A390 costs £10,600 more than the DS N°8. For that premium it adds 30 kW faster peak rapid charging, 125 kW more power and a 3.8s quicker 0-62mph time. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Alpine A390 comes out ahead overall.

The DS N°8 is £10,600 cheaper to buy. The DS N°8 is cheaper to charge, roughly £144 a year versus £176 for the Alpine A390, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the DS N°8 comes out roughly £10,760 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 285 miles for the DS N°8 - 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 25-27 minutes.

The two are within 20 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 515 mm of total clearance for the Alpine A390 and about 495 mm of total clearance for the DS N°8.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Alpine A390 and 84% for the DS N°8. 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.