The Gendarmerie will acquire 26 Alpine 110 Pure cars for its rapid intervention teams – Military Zone

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Last year, the announcement of the purchase by the National Gendarmerie of 17 Seat Leon CUPRA cars, in order to start replacing the Renault Megane RS of the Rapid Intervention Teams [ERI], did not fail to arouse a [petite] controversy, some having preferred a choice in favor of a French model, such as the Alpine A110 or the Peugeot 308 RC. Starting with the director of the Gendarmerie [DGGN], General Christian Rodriguez.

Indeed, during a hearing at the National Assembly, in October 2020, the latter had said share the “reaction” of a deputy by “belatedly discovering” the award of the contract to Seat.

“The subject of rapid intervention vehicles is not budgetary and does not stem from an incapacity at the level of French brands, but a question of the market”, had first explained the DGGN, before indicating that Another call for tenders would be launched to complete the allocation of the ERIs. “It is very likely that we will pass another market to complete the fleet of hybrid vehicles knowing that the French models are excellent,” he said.

As to the reason why the Alpine A110 had not been selected, General Rodriguez suggested that this model, with its two seats, was not necessarily the best suited to the needs of the Gendarmerie.

However, a year later, the specifications for a new call for tenders having been modified, the Ministry of the Interior announced that the Gendarmerie would soon be equipped with 26 Alpine A110 Pure cars. “This market was notified on October 11, for four years. An order of 26 copies has been placed, ”he said.

“These vehicles will allow the police to carry out interventions on the motorway, involving cars in violation at high speed, as part of road safety or judicial police missions. [trafic de stupéfiants par exemple]. Two of them will be dedicated to training in rapid intervention “, then explained the Ministry of the Interior, stressing that this order” contributes to the modernization and rejuvenation of the automobile fleet “which it has engaged” for 2 years. “.

This announcement is not however a surprise, insofar as several titles of the automobile press had taken information of the specialized site ” Mountaineers“, Which had revealed that the Ministry of the Interior was preparing to order Alpine A110s. He also recalled that the Gendarmerie expressed its interest in this model in … 2017.

Although in the past, the Rapid Intervention Brigades were equipped with Alpine Berlinette and Alpine 310 [mais aussi de Matra Djet 5s, de Ciroën SM, de Peugeot 405 TI16, de Renault 21Turbo, de Megane RS et de Subaru Impreza], the information from Alpinists had something to make skeptical.

Beyond C02 emissions [argument avancé pour ne pas commander davantage de Leon Cupra], the Auto Plus magazine thus pointed out that the A110 Pure is “much less practical than an edgy sedan: very small trunk, only two seats, limited space on board”. And to add: “Difficult to imagine that all the equipment of the gendarmerie can fit in the small berlinette”.

Equipped with a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, theA110 Pure can drive at the maximum speed of 250 km / h [sur circuit], thanks to its 252 hp engine and its mass of only 1098 kg. Depending on the configuration, such a car costs around 54,700 euros.

Photo: Alpine