Renault 5 Turbo 3E: The 540 hp Electric Heir to a Rally Legend

In 1980, Renault put a turbocharged engine where the rear seats of a humble 5 used to be and created a rally legend. Forty-six years later, the Renault 5 Turbo 3E does the same trick with electricity: two motors inside the rear wheels, 540 hp, carbon bodywork and only 1,980 cars. At the Paris Motor Show, Renault shows it as an engineering prototype close to the production car (Renault Group).

What Is the Renault 5 Turbo 3E?

The 5 Turbo 3E is a two-seat, rear-wheel-drive electric “mini-supercar” developed with Alpine. It looks like a Renault 5 E-Tech that has been to the gym, but almost everything is new: an aluminium chassis, carbon-fibre bodywork, a longer wheelbase, a windscreen moved further back and a width of over two metres (Mondial de l’Auto, Electrifying). Inside there are bucket seats, six-point harnesses and a vertical rally-style handbrake (What Car?).

Renault describes it as “a real rally, drift and circuit machine ready to take on the road” (Mondial de l’Auto). Production is limited to 1,980 numbered cars — a nod to 1980, the year the original 5 Turbo was launched (What Car?).

Renault 5 Turbo 3E Specs

The 4,800 Nm torque figure is measured at the wheels, which is why it looks so huge (Motor1). On a race track, Renault says the battery lasts for “several hot laps” — roughly 15 to 20 minutes flat-out (What Car?). There is also a drift-assist function, and design chief Sandeep Bhambra has called the car “a drift champion” (Mondial de l’Auto, Electrifying).

The Original Renault 5 Turbo: A Rally Legend

The original Renault 5 Turbo was a homologation special built so Renault could go rallying. It turned the front-wheel-drive Renault 5 into a mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive car with a 1,397 cc turbocharged four-cylinder engine where the rear seats used to be. The road car had 160 PS and weighed just 970 kg; the Turbo 2 reached 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds and 200 km/h (Wikipedia). The rear bodywork, with its enormous hips, was styled by Marc Deschamps at Bertone (Wikipedia).

On its very first World Rally Championship outing, Jean Ragnotti won the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally. The rally cars went from 180 PS to 210 PS in the Tour de Corse version, and the Group B Maxi Turbo reached 350 PS by 1984 — up to 385 PS in its final form (Wikipedia). In total, 4,987 road cars were built: 1,820 Turbo 1 and 3,167 of the cheaper Turbo 2 (Wikipedia). Even then it was expensive: Renault’s Bruno Vanel recalls that a normal Renault 5 cost 33,000 francs, while the 5 Turbo cost 115,000 francs (Electrifying).

Renault 5 Turbo vs 5 Turbo 3E: Comparison

The new car is about 480 kg heavier — that is the battery — but it has more than three times the power and roughly halves the 0–100 km/h time. The recipe is the same: take an everyday Renault 5, make it two-seat and rear-driven, give it massive hips and price it far above the normal car. The difference is that the original went rallying; the 3E is built for track days, drifting and collectors.

Price, Reservations and Deliveries

Renault quotes an introductory price of £135,000 before options, customisation and accessories, which makes it the most expensive Renault ever. Buyers reserve through a dedicated website and a chosen dealer; final configurations follow in 2027, and deliveries start later that year (Motor1, What Car?). The car is engineered with Alpine, and Renault has said it will be built at the Dieppe factory, the historic home of Alpine (Electrifying).

Batman Garage Verdict

Of all the French cars in Paris, this is the one you can actually order — and the one with the best story. The original 5 Turbo won Monte Carlo at its first attempt and became a poster car for a generation. The 3E has the same wild hips, a vertical handbrake and three times the power. At £135,000 it is not cheap, but neither was the original.

Renault 5 Turbo 3E — Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & Verification

Paris Motor Show presence: Renault Group. Official specifications and quote: Mondial de l’Auto. Price, production and track use: What Car?, Motor1. Production site and quotes from Sandeep Bhambra and Bruno Vanel: Electrifying. Original 5 Turbo history and figures: Wikipedia. Paris overview: Auto Express. Images: Renault; original Renault 5 Turbo 2 photos: Wikimedia Commons.