Crazy Renault 5 Turbo 3E Is Headed To Production

The French are once again turning the craziness dial to 11. Meet the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, a rear-wheel drive super hatch.

Renault 5 Turbo 3E

Photo by: Renault

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Dec 13, 2024 at 8:19am ET

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Renault wants to build a 500-horsepower rear-wheel drive two-door hatchback.
Called the 5 Turbo 3E, it's an electric nod to the rally-bred R5 Turbo of the 1980s.
It has two electric motors housed in the rear wheels and very wide stance.

French automakers have a knack for making weird stuff that sometimes turns out to be extremely interesting. The Citroen SM rings a bell, and so does the original Renault 5. The latter went through several iterations, but probably the most recognizable of them all is the properly bonkers Renault 5 Turbo, a mid-engined rally-bred fire-breathing hatchback that was good for 120 miles per hour.

Well, the R5 Turbo is back, albeit for the electric age. This is the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, a battery-powered super hatchback based on the recently revealed series-production city EV. But here’s the kicker, the Turbo 3E is also going into production, which gets our stamp of approval for serious craziness on Renault’s part.

It takes a lot of courage to bring something like this on the market, especially in Europe where things haven’t been going quite as well on the EV front as some manufacturers had hoped. But here comes Renault with a car that looks like it was envisioned by a 10-year-old after watching too much old-school rally footage.

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Gallery: Renault 5 Turbo 3E

Renault 5 Turbo 3E

Source: Renault

But enough of that. What’s under the skin of this thing? Quite a lot as it turns out, and its powertrain configuration is rather interesting. The Renault 5 Turbo 3E has two electric motors housed in the rear wheels. Combined, they put out over 500 horsepower, enough for a zero to 62 miles per hour sprint in just 3.5 seconds.

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There’s no word on what battery will power this electric pocket rocket, or how much time will be needed to replenish said battery. But does it really matter? Look at it! It’s significantly wider than the standard Renault 5, with tires so skinny you’d be forgiven for thinking they could hold next to no air. There’s also a delightful nod to the original R5 Turbo and Turbo 2 of the 1980s in the form of side-mounted air vent lookalikes. In the originals, they fed fresh air to the combustion engine, and in the modern reinterpretation, one of those vents hides the charging port.

There are no photos of the interior, but we expect a familiar look as the tamer Renault 5, with dual screens and a touch of exuberance. Renault says the 5 Turbo 3E will have “performance worthy of a supercar or even a hypercar.” There’s no launch date yet, but we expect it to become a reality sometime in 2026. Bring it!

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