The Renault 5 Turbo 2 is a legendary car from 40 years ago, when hot hatchbacks were perhaps at their peak.
On Monday, Renault unveiled a sequel: the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, a fully electric 540 hp hot hatch with limited production planned for 2027.
The automaker says it will produce only 1,980 units of the 5 Turbo 3E, which it calls the first “mini-supercar.” Renault defines this as a “new vehicle class,” which may come as news to all the other hot hatches in the world, but never mind: the 5 Turbo 3E is the kind of fully electric car that certain enthusiasts have been begging for.
The 540 horsepower is produced by wheel-mounted motors and can launch the car from zero to 62 mph in less than 3.5 seconds. The 5 Turbo 3E is appropriately short, about 4 meters in length, but also appropriately wide, about 2 meters in width.
“With these dimensions,” Renault says in a press release, “the Renault 5 Turbo 3E has the length of a city car with the width of a supercar.”
The automaker put a lot of thought into aerodynamics in an effort to balance downforce for cornering with effective weight distribution between the front and rear, while also channeling air to the rear brakes to aid cooling. The 5 Turbo 3E has two doors and seats only two people, with the battery placed under the floor. The car weighs less than 1,451 kg—quite light for an electric vehicle—and uses carbon fiber in various areas to keep that number down.
The 800-volt architecture allows the battery to charge from 15% to 80% in just 15 minutes, ideally after fast laps on the track at up to 167 mph, of which Renault says the Turbo 5 3E can do “several.” Renault has not provided a price, but it is believed to be well over €100,000 (about $110,000); the car will be sold in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Japan, but not in the U.S.
When it is delivered, the 5 Turbo 3E has a significant legacy to uphold, as the 5 Turbo 2 is one of the most collectible cars built after 1980. The 5 Turbo 2 was a hot hatchback built in an era when there were many hot hatchbacks, such as the Peugeot 205 GTi and the Volkswagen Golf GTI. Hot hatch buyers might even convince themselves that they are practical as well, given the rear storage space, including in the 5 Turbo 3E.
They often deliver a kind of stealth power on the road or, just as frequently, wear their intentions openly, as in the case of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E. Owners may also want to announce that they are among the few lucky buyers, which is something typical of supercars, after all.
Source: RobbReport. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
