Renault considering high-performance Zoe

Top Gear reports the e-Sport, a 340kW and 640Nm version of the otherwise rather vanilla Zoe, is still front of mind for Renault's electric vehicle boss, Gilles Normand.

"The e-Sport was more to test the water, to show that you can EVs are not boring,” he told the British publication.

"It was a communication tool that hit its purpose very well. The reaction was very strong. People were telling me ‘we are interested, can you do something like this?'

“We have not yet come to a conclusion but it did click in my head that the reception to this concept was so positive, and some of our competitors have identified some window of business for something like this.”

With a 40kWh battery feeding motors on each axle and aggressive carbon-fibre bodywork, the Zoe e-Sport isn't likely to be cheap if it reaches production in a similar form to its concept.

What it was, however, was fast. The e-Sport was good for a claimed 3.2-second sprint to 100km/h, on its way to an electrically-limited top whack of 200km/h (and it could hit that marker in around 10 seconds).

But Renault does have a history with hyper-hatches. Along with its run of ultra-pared-back Megane Trophy-R models, the French brand was famously responsible for the Clio V6.

Given it's also a player in Formula E, there's plenty of potential for a marketing-motorsport match made in heaven.