Electric hot hatch is a blast to drive but missing one crucial component – here’s an easy 3D-printed fix
“A large black Americano, please,” I cheerily say to the woman at the till. “To go!” I add loudly, beaming.
Clearly at a loss as to why someone would be so chipper at seven o’clock on a Wednesday morning at a motorway service station but none too bothered about finding out, she blinks, stares coolly and replies: “Do you mean venti or grande?”
Well, actually, my frappucino-frothing friend, I can have whatever the heck I like. The world is my oyster when it comes to choosing the size of my coffee. There’s no cup too capacious, no drink too daunting, no beverage too… Four pounds?! Forget it, I’ll make one when I get home.
Economic considerations aside, though, I’m enjoying the new-found sense of care-free liberation that comes from finally being able to take a drink along for the ride with me in the Alpine A290 we’re living with.
The lack of a cupholder had quickly become one of my prevailing bugbears about this electric hot hatch (second only to its frustratingly short range), and I was finding long journeys a particular chore without a hot coffee or tea to make the miles slip by more pleasurably.
But that has all changed now, and I find myself quickly warming again to the A290’s charms, because this glaring utility shortcoming has been addressed. My thanks go to design engineer and sometime motoring writer Tim Oldland, founder of home EV charger company Bespoke Chargers (check them out: they turn old wheels into cable reels).
Like me, he had borrowed an A290 for a while and quickly become frustrated by the lack of anywhere sensible to put a drink on the move. Unlike me, though, he had the skills and tools to do something about it, so produced the ingenious 3D-printed prototype shown above.
The bracket simply clips onto the side of the centre console, and the basket itself has flexible arms inside that clasp your vessel to stop it knocking and bouncing around. I’ve tested it with takeaway coffee cups, flasks and big metal bottles and haven’t been disappointed yet.
It came in particularly handy when I nipped down the road on Saturday afternoon to grab a bottle of wine, the door pockets having previously proven too narrow to comfortably stow a sauvignon.
It’s a fantastic solution to a problem that shouldn’t really exist, given that the Renault 5 on which the A290 is based has a pair of cupholders in the central cubby. The only problem with this design is that it protrudes into the front passenger compartment, so it’s a bit awkward to have in place when you’ve got someone with you-but then I suppose you could just ask them nicely to hold your drink for you until it’s finished.
There are universal, off-the-shelf alternatives available (some for just a few quid on Amazon, for example), but I’d either have to clip it to a vent – so my drink would block the flow of air into the cabin, getting colder or hotter than I want it in the process – or install it in the centre cubby itself, which would mean I’d have to have the lid open all the time and be unable to access a useful storage compartment.
I found one website selling the 3D-printing template for a clever free-standing design that fits neatly over the top of the A290’s wireless phone charging pad. I’d be tempted by this if I owned a 3D printer, but then where would my phone go? Welcome to the frustrating and complex world of modern car interior design.
In any case, my A290 now feels like a more well-rounded daily driver (amazing what a little piece of plastic can do) and, with warmer weather on the horizon, I’m looking forward to gaining a few miles per charge and more readily being able to take a spontaneous road trip for the sheer sake of driving.
