2026 Renault 5 Turbo 3E Preview

Introduction – Renault 5 Turbo 3E

The standard Renault 5 has already been selling so well, it’s hard to imagine why it might have needed a bit of halo performance car magic sprinkled over the range. Or maybe the engineers at Renault have just got a bit bored and wanted to show off what they could do. 

And they’ve really pushed the boat out – this Turbo 3E version takes the 5’s nostalgia fest to the absolute limit, harking back to the original 1980 R5 Turbo model that became a road and rally icon. It’s a beast – a 555hp rear-wheel drive hatchback with supercar performance.  

And a supercar price tag, too – it starts at £140,000 but Renault is offering so many personalisation options that it reckons the individual prices could easily sail past £200k. Makes your eyes water a little bit.

So if you want a usable, affordable everyday performance version of Renault's brilliant little electric hatchback, you'll be wanting an Alpine A290. 

The Turbo 3E is another thing altogether... built on a bespoke carbon fibre platform at the company's Dieppe factory, it's a supercar-meets-drift car spectacular, and only 1,980 of them will be made, so expect it to be more of a collector's trinket rather than something you’ll see a lot of out on the road. 

Range, battery and charging

This might not be the ideal car if you’re going to feel nervous about economy – miles per kWh and this kind of performance aren’t natural bedfellows. 

The Renault 5 Turbo 3E gets a 70kWh battery to power its high-tech in-wheel electric motors, mounted under the floor to help with centre of gravity. 

The WLTP range is 248 miles, which is already fairly low, but we wouldn’t expect to get anywhere near that if we were looking to enjoy the full bandwidth of the Turbo 3E’s natural capabilities. 

No information has been released about the battery tech itself, but it would certainly be a good opportunity for Renault to show off some of its latest thinking. 

We do know that the car gets 800V tech that will mean it can charge at up to 350kW – so you’ll be able to charge almost as fast as you’re using the electricity up on the road. Renault says a 10–80% charge will take around 15 minutes. 

A clever touch is the CCS charge port, which is disguised in one of the vents down the side of the car. 

Motors and performance

It’s an incredible machine, this. The Turbo 3E has two in-wheel electric motors at the back, popping 555hp through the rear wheels and a theoretical maximum of 4,800Nm of torque. Theoretical because your tyres will be smoking up before you can get there. 

When I went to see the car in pre-production form the engineers said the car weighed in at 1,450kg, but they were hoping to shave a bit more off before it went into production. Will be interesting to see how much they’ve managed. 

A tough job, surely – the rear seats have already been ditched, along with much of the interior, the chassis of the car is made from aluminium and carbon fibre and the 70kWh battery is the smallest that Renault thought it could get away with. 

Sure, the car will get to 62mph from rest in under 3.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 168mph, but it’s about more than just the straight line performance here. 

Renault says it has designed the car to be a hoot on track, especially if you want to try a bit of drifting. There’s even a hydraulic handbrake, which is the favoured tool of any drift specialist and rally driver.

Lots of track-oriented cars aim to be the sort of machine you could drive to and from the track without having to get a trailer, but the Renault 5 Turbo 3E could be a genuine everyday performance car. 

Interior, styling and technology 

The Turbo 3E looks incredible inside and out – there haven’t actually been any confirmed pictures of the interior yet, but Renault has at least confirmed some of the specifics. 

It might be a two-door, two-seat hatchback, but Renault has at least made some concession to practicality with what it calls a “generous” boot. I should think so once they’ve ditched the rear seats. This might be a good car for an IKEA run. 

You get two bucket seats with racing harnesses and a roll cage inside, a digital instrumental panel and a 10.25in touchscreen setup to control the infotainment. The car gets the Google-based system we’re used to from the 5 and 4 – having Google Maps for your satnav is pretty useful. 

Renault says there’s loads of personalisation on offer, so buyers will be able to have almost free reign over the seats, dashboard, door panels and centre console, though you will be assisted by a Renault designer to make sure it’s not too awful. 

Pricing and on sale date 

Reservations are open for the Turbo 3E already – there will only be 1,980 of them made (do you think Renault will even be able to sell that many?) as a nod to the year the original R5 Turbo was introduced. 

Each of the cars will be individually numbered, and buyers will be able to choose which number they get. Or maybe someone at Renault will pull the allocations out like a tombola.

The car will only be available across Europe, the Middle East, Japan and Australia, with deliveries starting at some point in 2027. 

We won’t talk about PCP here, because we’re not sure if the car will be available on any of Renault’s in-house finance deals. How much do you think it would cost to lease a car like this? If the resale values stay high it might turn out quite affordable...

Verdict

The Renault 5 Turbo 3E is one of those cars that you might not understand or ever get an opportunity to drive, but you have to applaud the fact that it exists. And if you see someone who’s bought one once deliveries start in 2027, gently encourage them to get it out of the air-conditioned garage once in a while. 

Renault is really pushing the boundaries with some interesting performance tech – like those in-wheel electric motors – and how can it be that between this and the new Alpine A110 Electric that Renault is the only carmaker trying to build electric cars that are genuinely fun to drive? 

Not only that, but building a car like this makes us fascinated to see what Renault’s next move will be. In the meantime, we need to make sure that Lego puts the fan designed version of the car into production too.