► RenaultSport could make a return
► Renault ‘has some ideas’ about new sports cars
► Follows on from appetite for Turbo 3E
Renault’s high-performance arm RenaultSport could make a return after being put to rest in 2023.
Executives in the brand have confirmed during the 2025 Munich motor show that they are in the middle of deciding on proposals to introduce sporty Renault models that may either sit below or beside Alpine.
Fabrice Cambolive, Renault brand CEO, told CAR and other automotive media during the official reveal of the new sixth-generation Clio that the brand is ‘exploring some ideas’ surrounding sporty models that are specifically for the Renault brand.
The last proper RenaultSport model was the Megane R.S. Ultime (pictured below) that launched in 2023, a super limited-run final version of the fiery, rear-steer hot hatch.
More recently, Renault has already been playing around with high-performance cars, crafting the 5 Turbo 3E project that went from wild one-off gymkhana drift car concept to a limited-run, £140k electric supercar. The brand also seems to have sportiness on the brain more generally, given Cambolive has confirmed that the Megane E-Tech is set to receive a ‘hot hatch’-like facelift very soon.
‘But, up to now, we have to find the right balance,’ adds Cambolive. ‘R5 Turbo 3E is an extreme case – the Group will come with some proposals, but in the next 12 months. We have some ideas.’
There was a time, mainly under the stewardship of Luca de Meo, that the Renault Group wanted Alpine to be the sole performance brand within its line-up. ‘But we don’t have that [business] model now where we have to make that choice,’ says Cambolive. ‘We will see when we have to make a big decision on that, but we don’t have a concrete example now.’
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist