Renault 5 Turbo 3E e-car: return of the twin-hub drive turbocharged car

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Renault's respectable success with the Renault 5 E-Tech electric car is still well remembered. Now the French are presenting a sporty offshoot of the compact model that has it all. The traditional French brand could have made it easy for itself and launched an optically spiced-up version with rally stripes and wide tires with slightly higher approved electric power. In principle, an electric drive would have enough reserves for this kind of tuning. But they took a completely different route.

Retro-futurism

Instead, with the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, the brand is apparently presenting a genuine rally car including a carbon fiber plastic lightweight body and cage. Since it also uses battery technology at 800-volt level for appropriate driving characteristics and the controversial wheel hub motors for adequate speed when charging, it can be described as a real technology carrier. Renault calls it "retro-futurism". The R5 T3 points to both the past and the future.

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Renault 5 Turbo 3E Exterieur (12 Bilder)

With the Turbo 3E, Renault makes reference to the legendary Renault 5 Turbo and Turbo 2 sports car, which was able to spread fear and terror on the rally track from 1980 onwards on the basis of the justifiably widespread, harmless small car. The car was an extreme conversion with a souped-up mid-engine instead of the well-behaved front-wheel drive and a striking increase in width due to the wide rear tires. It was also called a "cheek turbo". Today, this look is the basic connecting element to the electric Renault 5 Turbo 3E: it measures just over two meters in width, but is only slightly longer than four meters, with a wheelbase of 2.57 meters. Half as wide as it is long. The height is 1.38 meters. The visual impression is enhanced by the corresponding paintwork.

Lightweight despite battery

Technically, of course, everything is completely different. According to Renault, the two motors in the rear wheels provide a maximum torque of 4800 Nm. Renault will hopefully soon provide details of how this figure was arrived at, as it sounds extremely optimistic, to put it politely. These enormous forces are transferred to the road by Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires in the extreme dimension 275/35R20. With an output of 400 kW, the R5 Turbo 3 is said to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of 270 km/h. Thanks to the carbon fiber body and aluminum chassis, the kerb weight is 1450 kg, which contributes to its good power-to-weight ratio of just 3.6 kg per kW.

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Renault 5 Turbo 3E Interieur (6 Bilder)

The motors in the rear wheels reduce the number of components and thus the weight and also offer the option of torque vectoring, i.e. stabilizing torque steering with the greatest possible traction. These intelligently controlled dynamics support the steering and thus the agility. In this respect, the R5 Turbo 3E is not only brutal, but also smart. The well-known disadvantage of wheel hub motors, traction disadvantages due to the high unsprung mass, has obviously been mastered by Renault, possibly through particularly lightweight components, well-tuned damping and certainly through limited suspension travel.

With rally handbrake

Renault has installed several driving modes in order to fully explore the potential. For the track, there is the "Race" mode and a "Drift Assist" function which, in combination with the rally handbrake acting on the rear disc brakes, is designed to enable radical drifts. In addition to "Normal", "Sport" and "Snow" are also available as road modes.

The 70 kWh battery placed under the floor enables an estimated WLTP range of more than 400 km on the road. However, the measurements have not yet been completed. Due to the new 800-volt technology used in-house, Renault estimates the charging capacity at a maximum of 350 kW at a DC charging point, which ideally corresponds to a charging time of 15(!) to 80 percent in 15 minutes. Converted, the 45.5 kWh (=65 percent) in 15 minutes would correspond to an average net charging capacity of 182 kW, to which the charging losses would still have to be added.

The prospect of fast-charging capability

Renault intends to sell the retro-futuristic Rallye-R5 in a limited edition of 1980 numbered units to a "discerning clientele" via selected dealers in Europe, the Middle East, Japan and Australia against advance payment. The order books will be available in the coming weeks and the first deliveries will take place from 2027. The cars are likely to be very expensive given the technical complexity of the small production run. The prospect of the fast-charging capability of future Renaults presented in the technology carrier is certainly more interesting for normal potential Renault customers.

(fpi)