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Written by Ollie Kew
Before Renault"s outrageous twin-motored Zoe e-Sport whirred out onto the Geneva motor show stand, TG.com grabbed a quick one-on-one with the electric hot hatch concept and its designer, Renault"s Laurens van der Acker. He"s pretty pleased with the 460bhp skunkworks project"I"d say this is a designer"s wet dream, to create this. You take a Zoe, then you pump it full of steroids, put two electric engines in it, and it becomes not only the best power-to-weight electric car in the world, but also faster than a Formula E racecar. That"s a pretty crazy brief, y"know?"The Zoe e-Sport isn"t designed to be raced in a zero-emission Clio Cup sort of series, nor sold to the public. We asked Laurens if having no regulations to worry about actually makes his job harder, because there"s nothing to stop him and his team going way, way over the top"Well, the car does respect FIA rules there"s carbon fibre reinforcement of the chassis, you could take it on a track, and it"s much more aerodynamic [than a Zoe], because we stretched the roofline, and gave the body sharper edges to really cut off the airflow. But really, the car is all about being wider, more masculine, and light. It"s only 1450kg, and that"s including 450kg of batteries.""I think this is the most exciting time ever to be a car designer", Laurens says. "There was a time when people said sports cars are dead because they"re irresponsible and polluting, but now there"s a new way of having all the fun and none of the guilt, with electric powertrains. And on top of that, it gives us architectural freedom. You can put e-motors in all the wheels, so the handling gets better."
Date written: 9 Mar 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 7004
Before Renault"s outrageous twin-motored Zoe e-Sport whirred out onto the Geneva motor show stand, TG.com grabbed a quick one-on-one with the electric hot hatch concept and its designer, Renault"s Laurens van der Acker. He"s pretty pleased with the 460bhp skunkworks project"I"d say this is a designer"s wet dream, to create this. You take a Zoe, then you pump it full of steroids, put two electric engines in it, and it becomes not only the best power-to-weight electric car in the world, but also faster than a Formula E racecar. That"s a pretty crazy brief, y"know?"The Zoe e-Sport isn"t designed to be raced in a zero-emission Clio Cup sort of series, nor sold to the public. We asked Laurens if having no regulations to worry about actually makes his job harder, because there"s nothing to stop him and his team going way, way over the top"Well, the car does respect FIA rules there"s carbon fibre reinforcement of the chassis, you could take it on a track, and it"s much more aerodynamic [than a Zoe], because we stretched the roofline, and gave the body sharper edges to really cut off the airflow. But really, the car is all about being wider, more masculine, and light. It"s only 1450kg, and that"s including 450kg of batteries.""I think this is the most exciting time ever to be a car designer", Laurens says. "There was a time when people said sports cars are dead because they"re irresponsible and polluting, but now there"s a new way of having all the fun and none of the guilt, with electric powertrains. And on top of that, it gives us architectural freedom. You can put e-motors in all the wheels, so the handling gets better."
Date written: 9 Mar 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 7004