Who said electric cars have to be boring?
Certainly not the French company Renault, which today confirmed that it will launch one of the most extreme electric vehicles we have seen so far.
The wild Renault 5 Turbo 3E, a battery-powered hot hatch inspired by the iconic 1980s rally legend the Renault 5 Turbo, will go into production, the company said.
However, it will not be readily available or cheap.
Instead of a volume production model, the R5 Turbo 3E will be a limited-edition, hand-built electric vehicle manufactured in very low quantities that will likely cost up to six figures.
Described by Renault as a “spectacular sports car that’s adrenaline on wheels,” it will feature 500 horsepower, an incredible rear-wheel drive setup, and a 0-62 mph sprint time of 3.5 seconds, which is plenty fast enough. enough to scare most supercars. .
An electric car that can excite even petrolheads: Renault confirms its 80s-inspired 5 Turbo 3E hot hatch will go into production – but is likely to cost more than £100,000
The huge expected price will buy you an attractive retro-inspired hatchback clad in carbon fiber.
Unlike the standard R5 EV, which has the option to choose between a 40 kWh or 52 kWh battery and up to 150 HP, the Turbo 3E will be much more powerful.
Renault says it will be three times more powerful thanks to a larger battery and a pair of electric motors.
These electric motors in the wheels of the rear axle will deliver up to 500 horsepower of instantaneous performance to each wheel independently. At first glance, it looks like it could be a real problem.
The huge wheel arches, boxy features and compact dimensions closely resemble the 1980s Renault 5 Turbo rally cars used in the 1980s (left)
The Renault 5 Turbo – or ‘R5’ – is one of the beloved cars of the fearsome Group B generation, alongside the Audi Quattro, Lancia 037 and Delta S4, Peugeot 205 T16, Metro 6R4 and Ford RS200.
The Renault 5 Turbo is still considered an icon of rallying. Here, French driver Paul Chieusse and his co-driver Fabienne Brunet de Bainne compete in the Legend Boucles a Bastogne in Belgium in February 2016.
Unlike the standard front-engined Renault 5 of the 1980s, the Turbo had a powerful 1.4-litre petrol engine mounted behind the front seats. The new 5 Turbo 3E will follow suit, being totally different from the R5 EV to take performance to the extreme
The French team is staying mum on the car’s specifications for now, with no information yet on battery size or charging speeds.
However, the charging port is mounted inside one of the external air intakes in a faithful nod to the original’s intake-mounted fuel filler.
From first impressions, it looks like very little will be carried over from the £22,995 5 E-Tech. This is not surprising, given that the 5 Turbo 3E will cost around five times as much.
It will be strictly a two-door model, as opposed to the conventional car’s four-door, and will take huge inspiration from the Renault 5 Turbo introduced in 1980, including its narrow headlights (although this time LED), a huge air intake and a huge front divider.
Huge flared arches are joined by wide side skirts and a rear bumper that incorporates a huge diffuser to give the 5 Turbo 3E one of the most aggressive stances we’ve seen in an electric car yet.
Renault has not leaked images of the cabin, although we expect it to be a two-seater with a minimalist and uncompromising interior.
Described by Renault as a “spectacular sports car that is adrenaline on wheels”, it will have 500 HP
The car will be equipped with a powerful electric motor in each of the rear wheels to provide instant performance through each corner independently. Renault says it will accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds
Huge flared arches are joined by wide side skirts and a rear bumper that incorporates a huge diffuser to give the 5 Turbo 3E one of the most aggressive stances we’ve seen in an electric car yet.
The new Renault 5 E-Tech (pictured) will be available in January, priced from £22,995. The 5 Turbo 3E will share very little with it, as the crazy hot hatch will be hand-built in limited quantities and cost five times as much.
The car will be hand-built by a team of specialists in France and in limited quantities. How many has not been confirmed either.
While it has been described as a 100 percent electric race car, it will be road legal.
Renault stated that the 5 Turbo 3E is a “reinterpretation of the Renault 5 Turbo and Turbo 2, combining top-level performance and exuberance with numerous references to the world of motorsport.”
He continued: ‘Its racing silhouette and decoration recall the historical colors of one of the versions that participated in rallies in the early 1980s.
‘100% electric racing car, the Renault 5 Turbo 3E will take advantage of its retro-futuristic design to incorporate a modern element such as the charging intake in one of the rear air intakes, which recalls the style of the ‘original Turbo’. ‘.
“Its carbon superstructure will give it lightness and maximum rigidity, an essential combination for a ‘sports bomb’ worthy of its name and heritage.”
Customers are likely to be able to choose their own designs, although most are expected to carry iconic schemes from the Renault 5 Turbo’s Group B past.
With no information yet on pricing, anyone interested in getting their hands on one will need to have at least £100,000 waiting to go into an account if they’re serious about buying one.
Why does the Group B rally era have legendary status?
Group B was a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for rallying that fostered some of the fastest, most powerful, most sophisticated and ferociously fast racing cars ever built.
The category was hotly contested, with the Audi Quattro, Lancia O37 and Peugeot 205 T16 winning WRC titles during the Group B era.
Although it did not win any championships, the Renault 5 Turbo did achieve victory in four races in total: the Monte Carlo Rally in 1981, the French Tour de Corse in 1982 and 1985 and the Portuguese rally in 1986.
The Renault 5 Turbo failed to win any Group B titles, but achieved four race victories between 1981 and 1986.
Group B is commonly known as the golden era of rallying, when fans flocked to events, sitting as close to the action as possible and often filling the stages themselves.
The combination of extreme power and crowds forming on the road or track eventually resulted in a series of major accidents, some of them fatal.
And after the death of three-time winner Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto in the 1986 Tour de Corse, the FIA dissolved the category.
The incredible sights and sounds of that rally era of the early 1980s, despite being relatively short-lived, have acquired legendary status among motorsport fans and motor enthusiasts in general.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them, we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.