SALON-Renault would like to see its electric R5 Turbo compete in rallies | Photo credits: Renault / Cathy Dubuisson
PARIS, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Luca de Meo, chief executive of Renault, on Monday called on the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to allow electric models to compete in rallies in order to enter his new Renault 5 Turbo. presented at the Paris Motor Show.
The car designed by Laurens van den Acker – nearly 400 horsepower with two electric motors – is to date a simple concept cut out for drifting and taking up the codes of an iconic model of the Renault brand, a bodybuilt version of the R5 in the 1980s.
“We have almost found the technical solution to do it, we just have to find the place in the budget,” said Luca de Meo at the opening of the 89th Paris Motor Show. “But if business goes better than expected, maybe we could afford to develop it? It would be perfect to make it Renault’s top of the range.”
“The dream too, he continued, is (..) to fight for the world rally championship, so the FIA should review the regulations to authorize pure electrics”, he said. -he adds. (Gilles Guillaume, editing by Kate Entringer)