The ‘hot hatch’ segment has been around for half a century now. While the AMC Gremlin is considered to be the vehicle that birthed this genre, the ball really started rolling when the original Volkswagen Golf GTI reached the market. With a handful other cars, all roughly the same dimensions, offering small displacement engines tuned to punch well above their weights, hot hatches grew in popularity over the decade and the one that followed.

With the 80s witnessing the peak of Group B rallying, every manufacturer wanted their shot at it – Audi with the Quattro, Peugeot with the 205 T16, Lancia with the 037 and later the Delta S4, and Renault with the 5 Turbo. As per the regulations, every manufacturer is required to produce 200 cars for homologation, and that meant very few people got their hands on the road-legal counterparts of these absolute weapons.

The roadgoing Renault 5 Turbo was once France’s most powerful car, squeezing 160 hp and 221 Nm of torque from a mere 1.4L turbocharged motor. The catch was that while the regular Renault 5 was a front-engine, front-wheel-drive car, the Turbo was a midship rear-wheel-drive. Essentially using components from everywhere that Renault had a hand on, the Renault 5 Turbo, with its flared wheel-arches, wide-body stance, and lack of rear seats, was one of the most iconic hot hatches of the last century.

For 2025, celebrating the legacy of the 5 Turbo and other hot hatches that followed in the bloodline, and embracing the era of electrification that is upon us, Renault have revealed a production model Renault 5 Turbo 3E, the ‘3’ signifying the spiritual continuation of the two phases in which the OG Turbo was released. Straying from a conventional press release, Renault decided to drop the news at the very end of their documentary series, Anatomy of a Comeback, which portrays the resurgence of Renault as a brand.

Speaking of the 5 Turbo 3E, fans of the Group B heyday will be delighted to know this is a rear-wheel drive hatch, and it retains the iconic, flared wheel-arches and widebody stance. Based on the current Renault 5 E-Tech, which itself derives styling cues from the original Renault 5, it isn’t far fetched to say this is visually very much a modern incarnation of the 5 Turbo.  The powertrain is a nod to the future, sporting two electric motors that is set to send over 500 hp to the rear wheels, helping it hit 100 km/h in around 3.5 seconds.

More details are yet to be released courtesy Renault, so there’s a fair bit of speculation possible on whether this really is the revival of a legend, or whether it’s another attempt at sales using revered nameplates. From the looks of it, however, this seems a serious try at reimagining the myth that is the Renault 5 Turbo for the 2020s, and we’re all here for it.