Renault 5 Turbo 3E

The Renault 5 Turbo 3E is no nostalgic project, no design exercise and certainly no marketing stunt. This is Renault at its most unrestrained: a fully electric reinterpretation of the legendary Renault 5 Turbo and Turbo 2, but technically and philosophically placed in a completely new universe. Not as a hot hatch. Not as a sporty EV. But as something that barely exists today: an electric mini-supercar.

With its 540 hp, in-wheel motors, rear-wheel drive, carbon superstructure and 800-volt architecture, the 5 Turbo 3E slides effortlessly onto the table where normally only big, expensive supercars sit, only it does so in a package barely 4.08 metres long.

Positioning: a new category, not a reinterpretation

Renault is strikingly honest here: the 5 Turbo 3E replaces nothing in the range and competes directly with no one. It stands alongside the Renault 5 E-Tech Electric (city EV) and the Alpine A290 (sporty city car), but shares only the name and the heritage with them.

Technically, conceptually and emotionally, this is a different animal. The 5 Turbo 3E was developed as a halo car, but one that is genuinely allowed on the road. Not a show car with a number plate, but a car built to be driven hard: on winding roads, on circuits, and even sideways, explicitly so.

The limited production run of 1,980 numbered examples (a clear nod to 1980, the birth year of the original Turbo) underlines that positioning: this is no volume model, but a statement.

Design: retro-futurism with functional aggression

Visually the 5 Turbo 3E is instantly recognisable as a Turbo, but nothing on this car is gratuitous. Every surface, every air intake and every edge has an aerodynamic or cooling function.

The basic shape references the 1980s, but the execution is radically modern:

Square LED headlights that merge into the bonnet
Extremely widened wheel arches with 20-inch wheels
Large air channels in front of, beside and behind the wheels
An aggressive splitter, diffuser and integrated rear spoiler

The proportions may be the most impressive part: as wide as a supercar, as short as a city car. With a length-to-width ratio of 2.01 it sits literally in supercar territory, only compact, taut and uncompromising.

Architecture and technology: everything subordinate to the driving experience

The Renault 5 Turbo 3E sits on a completely new, bespoke electric platform, with a rear-wheel-drive layout and an aluminium base structure, finished with a carbon superstructure to keep weight down.

The heart of the car is formed by two electric in-wheel motors, each integrated into a rear wheel. That delivers four crucial advantages:

Immediate response without driveline lag
Independent torque control per wheel
Major savings in weight and space
Extremely precise control under acceleration and when drifting

Together they deliver:

540 hp
4,800 Nm of torque at the wheels
0 to 100 km/h in under 3.5 s
Top speed up to 270 km/h (track mode)

With a total weight of around 1,450 kg (including the 70 kWh battery) the power-to-weight ratio comes to 2.7 kg/hp, numbers normally reserved for iconic supercars.

Driving: built for sensation, not for consensus

This is where the 5 Turbo 3E fully claims its right to exist. The driving experience is not filtered, not flattened and not polished to keep everyone happy.

Thanks to:

Low battery placement
An extremely low centre of gravity
Rear-wheel drive
Individual motor control

the result is a car that turns in like a rally car but accelerates like a hypercar.

Renault provides several MULTI-SENSE drive modes:

Snow
Regular
Sport
Race (with drift assist)

In Race mode the stability control is deliberately rewritten to allow controlled oversteer. A vertical rally handbrake and adjustable regeneration make clear this is no marketing detail, but a fundamental part of the concept.