At the Geneva Motor Show, Renault showed off their fun side while also maintaining a future-facing stance on automobiles. The Zoe e-Sport is a very small but very sporty looking take on the marque’s fully electric city car, but here it’s motors are capable of 340kW and 640Nm to the wheels.
Tiny, but with massive power, seems to be the elevator pitch for the hopped-up Zoe, and the term ‘atomic hatch’ comes to mind as this easily overpowers even the most insane hyper hatches of today. It’s still a concept, though, and probably one that will never manifest later on as road going model.
The team at Renault used plenty of carbon fibre and kevlar in its construction as well as being ruthless in stripping out unnecessary weight to result in a 1,400kg overall weight - nearly 70kg less than the standard Zoe. Like all electric vehicles, the single heaviest component by far is the battery, and in the Zoe e-Sport sports a 40kWh capacity and weighs 450kg.
To better handle the extra heft and give the car proper dynamic credibility, the Zoe’s shell has been thoroughly reworked. For strength, it’s skeleton is almost entirely made from tubular steel.
It also benefits quite a bit from the expertise gained from Renault’s Formula E team, which were responsible for the car’s powertrain and energy management systems, controllable by the driver through the three-zone dash panel.
Aside from that, there’s actually few creature comforts nor are there any touches to really remind you of the car’s futuristic propulsion method. A pair of Recaro bucket seats and 6-point racing harnesses, liberal use of Alcantara trim, and a rectangular complete the no-nonsense motorsport feel. There is aluminium framing on some of the instruments and switchgear, but we suspect this was equally in pursuit of weight saving as it was aesthetics.
Perhaps out of habit, the car’s engineers even made it to comply with FIA safety standards, though more deliberately added an extensive list of aerodynamic components to improve the Zoe e-Sport’s theoretical lap time - there’s a front air dam, flat underbody, Formula E-inspired rear diffuser, and large carbon fibre tailgate spoiler.
Two electric motors - one for each axle - delivers 200kW each and features permanent magnet technology for greater energy efficiency and to make sure all stress components are kept at an optimum operating temperature, Renault has fitted it with a combination of air and water cooling system.
In a car as small as this high-performance Zoe concept, 340kW from zero RPM and all wheel traction means a 3.2 second sprint time to 100km/h. For comparison, a Formula E car only has roughly 199kW of power at its disposal.
For more on Renault vehicles, including pricing and specifications, check out our Showroom.
