Epic $200,000, 375kW, all-paw hot hatch coming to put the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Toyota GR Corolla and Mercedes-AMG A45 on notice: 2026 Renault 5 Turbo 3E concept car is heading to production

Renault revealed an epic, all-paw concept car at the 2022 Paris Motor Show that's visually related to the new 5 hatchback.

In the interim, performance sub-brand Alpine released its A290 hot hatch with blistered guards and more grunt – but still only front-wheel drive. 

Now, the French marque has promised it is going to put the Renault 5 Turbo 3E into production and that it will develop in excess of 375kW courtesy of all-wheel drive and in-wheel motors for advanced torque vectoring.

That’s enough to not only flummox the best combustion-engined all-paw hot hatchbacks like the Toyota GR Corolla, Mercedes-AMG A45 S and Audi RS3, but also put the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to shame. 

Since Alpine launched the A290 with its 160kW front motor, 60mm wider tracks and 19-inch alloy wheels, it’s been an open secret an AWD model is coming. 

With more than twice the power, the production Renault 5 Turbo 3E should cut the A290’s 0-100km/h sprint from 6.4 seconds to under 3.5 seconds. The advanced electric motors are understood to be supplied by a British company called Protean Electric.

And if you’re thinking the 5 Turbo 3E doesn’t look much like the 5, you’d be right. It has a bespoke architecture underneath with flared carbon-composite body panels. The concept version used space-frame construction.

There are massive side intakes to cool the e-Motors, one of which houses the charging port. It also features huge wide-body kit, an underfloor diffuser, wings, bespoke front bumper and all sorts of aerodynamic addenda.

Renault CEO Luca De Meo’s design brief? “Make me a little beast”.

The production model is expected to keep the concept’s drift modes, doughnut settings and a physical handbrake — though whether it’s a cable pull or more like the Ford Mustang’s electro-hydraulic ‘Drift Brake’ is unclear.

Renault has promised an “outstanding driving sensation, something completely unexpected” with agility “like nothing else”.

The Turbo 3E is a nod to the Renault 5 dynasty. The hatch started with the regular range, with the 5 GT Turbo added as the mass-production hot model — akin to today’s Alpine A290 — with the mid-engined Renault 5 Turbo 2 as the limited-run flagship. 

The recipe was repeated in the early 2000s on the second-generation Renault Clio. Cooking regular hatch, big-engined attainable hot hatch (Renault Sport 172 and 182) and super-limited, mid-engined rear-drive Clio V6 at the top of the tree. 

It also seems, strangely, as though the Turbo 3E will be a Renault product, rather than Alpine. Suppose that is the difference between outright punch and Alpine’s bent for low weight and overall balance. 

Due to reach final production in 2026, don’t expect to see Renault 5 Turbo 3Es everywhere on the roads. It is expected to be a limited-production model priced north of $200,000.