It’s not too often these days a new car reveal makes us audibly gasp. Even this year’s crop of mega-power hypercars, the McLaren W1 and Ferrari F80, were met with muted mumbles at best. This morning though, we picked up our phones, bleary-eyed, and saw pictures of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E. Cool, we thought. Renault’s done another concept in homage to its monstrous 5 Turbo Group B rally car from the 1980s. Then we read the bit that says this thing’s going into production. Gasp, indeed.
The Turbo 3E, clearly, resembles the new electric Renault 5, which already has a sporty version in the form of the Alpine A290. We say ‘resembles’ because underneath it’s a whole different thing. It’s based around a new carbon superstructure, which packs in a pair of rear-wheel mounted electric motors kicking out over 500bhp.
Yep, this is a 500bhp-plus, rear-wheel drive hatchback. That’s about all we have in terms of tech details for now, although Renault’s also given us a 0-62mph time – 3.5 seconds. The same as the new Aston Martin Vantage, then. In a Renault hatchback. That you can actually buy.
Renault 5 Turbo 3E – side
Well, we say you can buy one – we don’t know how many Renault is planning on making, but we can’t imagine this is going to be a mass-production model. It’s also going to presumably cost rather a lot.
As mentioned, that massively swole bodywork recalls the 5 Turbo of the ’80s, a mid-engined, turbocharged version of the humble original 5 designed to go Group B rallying. As with all the best Group B cars, it spawned an equally mad roadgoing homologation special, one of the few mid-engined hot hatches ever to make production (a concept Renault would later revisit with the Clio V6). Here, one of those pumped-up rear arches houses the electric charging socket in place of the original’s air intake.
Renault 5 Turbo 3E – rear
The Turbo 3E name first appeared on a driveable, and very drifty, concept back in 2022 as Renault was gearing up for the unveil of the new 5. At the time, we assumed it was just the company having a bit of fun in marketing its retro-tastic new electric hatch.
Totally out of le bleu, though, it’s had another of those moments – like the original R5 Turbo, or the Sport Spider, or the Clio V6 – in which it completely lets its hair down and puts something utterly mad on sale. That’s something increasingly rare in the modern car market, so whatever your take on electric performance cars, it deserves applause. We’ll bring you more as we have it.
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