Perhaps Renault has been taken aback by the response to its electric reboot of the original R5 Turbo - perhaps it hasn’t. After all, the original concept was sufficiently lauded for the manufacturer to have probably started counting its chickens; now it has started plotting how it will pay for the developmental egg. Very high-powered electric cars have not exactly been flying off the shelves of late (you know things are not going well when Rimac is struggling for buyers), but Renault’s press release to announce its dedicated reservation system has all the hallmarks of an OEM anticipating a tsunami of high-end data capture. And plenty of cash, too.
As you might expect at this early stage, ‘reservation’ does not mean ‘order’. But this is not just about completing a form on the website (though, granted, that is the first stage). The second stage of the process involves you leaving your house. Because your selected dealer will contact you to make an appointment at the showroom, where, assuming your credentials scrub up, you will be invited to physically sign a reservation form. This will secure you ‘priority’ when the Renault 5 Turbo 3E becomes available to buy.
The dealer has a vested interest in making sure you pass muster because a) the first 500 examples of Turbo 3E will cost from £135k including VAT but excluding all options and accessories, and b) to help finance the project and ‘in line with the principle of upfront funding, any dealers placing a reservation for a car – in their capacity as key partners – will contribute to its pre-financing, just like the customers’, so you’re in it together. Or you will be eventually. Come 2026, you get to specify your personalisation choices (including colour and livery and some ‘gentleman driver’ options) which ought to mean you’re front of the line when 2027 rolls around and you can finalise the configuration and confirm your order.
"We are proud to have succeeded in involving our dealers, as well as the first customers, in the pre-financing process of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E. To achieve this, we have implemented an innovative reservation scheme, befitting this exceptional vehicle, a major image vector for the Renault brand,” reckons global sales director, Ivan Segal. “On the other hand, it helps us finalise the development of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E and launch the first units in 2027. The Renault 5 Turbo 3E could not have come to life without this entirely new process, which demonstrates Renault Group's ability to innovate in the marketing schemes of extraordinary projects."
Innovative or not, it certainly feels like novel territory for a firm also selling the Kwid, the Triber, the Arkana, and the Kiger. Even the launch of the Alpine A110 - a model intended to sell many more units than it ever did - had a very different vibe. But with Dacia crushing it and the 5 E-Tech being lauded as the EV everyone should want (whether they actually do or not), Renault is clearly enjoying a moment. And on the basis that we’re talking about a rear-drive ‘mini-supercar’ built on a custom-designed aluminium platform and with in-wheel motors delivering 540hp - making it the most powerful Renault-badged car to date - clearly, this is unlike anything it has done before.
Though on a very different scale, PH is reminded of the furore that greeted the introduction of the GR Yaris, when Toyota’s UK dealers suddenly found themselves playing host to supercar owners. Clearly, with just 1,980 examples planned globally - and Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, Japan, and Australia to also satisfy - Renault is bracing itself for the same sort of response, except this time the six-figure asking price (which is still very much subject to change when sales officially open) will likely be familiar to any new customer it welcomes through the door. For everyone else, we’ll get to see the car on display at the Festival of Speed this summer.
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