New Renault 5 Turbo 3E revealed: the 500hp rear-wheel drive EV no one was expecting
December 13, 2024 by Jamie Edkins
Car changing is a big deal
Renault’s engineers have let their hair down with this: the new 5 Turbo 3E – a 500hp electric car with wild styling and rear-wheel drive.
- New Renault 5 Turbo 3E revealed
- Insane performance EV going on sale in limited numbers
- Wild carbon fibre bodywork
- Rear-wheel drive and 500hp
- 0-60mph in just 3.5 seconds
- Expected to cost over £100,000
This is the new Renault 5 Turbo 3E, and it’s a rather unexpected move from the French brand. What you have here is an electric car with 500hp being sent to the rear wheels, and it’ll do 0-60mph in just 3.5 seconds.
Renault hasn’t built anything this crazy since the Clio V6 of the early 2000s, however this car is actually the spiritual successor to the original 5 Turbo 3E of the 1980s. Even more surprising is the fact that you’ll actually be able to buy this car, but it’ll be sold in limited numbers.
New Renault 5 Turbo 3E design
You’re certainly not going to confuse this with a standard Renault 5, because it looks completely bonkers.
The most obvious difference is the massive widebody kit which is fashioned from carbon fibre, much like the rest of the car. Those square headlights are even more retro-looking than the normal 5, but the swollen lower bumper with its gaping air intakes is anything but.
From the side you’ll notice that the Turbo 3E does away with the rear doors, with a pair of air scoops taking their place. Those intakes are where Renault has hidden the charging port as well.
Moving to the rear you get your first similarity between this and the standard Renault 5. The taillights are pretty much the same as the standard car’s, unlike the ducktail spoiler and mad lower diffuser.
New Renault 5 Turbo 3E motors and performance
The original Renault 5 Turbo 3E took the world by storm in the 1980s by being a rear-wheel drive hot hatch with the engine in the middle, a recipe which Renault repeated in the mid 2000s with the Clio V6.
Well this new 5 Turbo 3E is the spiritual successor to those mad French hatchbacks. It doesn’t have an engine, but the two electric motors are mounted at the back powering the rear wheels.
They produce a combined 500hp, more than double what you get from the Alpine A290. The result is 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds, exactly the same as a BMW M3 and only a few tenths of a second off a Porsche 911 GT3.
Can I buy a Renault 5 Turbo 3E?
Amazingly, yes you can. When the concept version of this car was first unveiled no one expected it to go into production, but Renault has confirmed that it will go on sale, albeit in very limited numbers.
It hasn’t confirmed just how limited yet, but you can bet that a one-of-a-kind special-edition hatchback won’t come cheap. Expect a price tag north of £100,000 when it does go on sale.
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