This Paper describes the influence of additive concentrations and sintering temperature on the surge protection performance in ZnO ceramic varistors. It is found from the experiments that the metal-oxide semiconductors based oi ZnO with an additive incorporation of 0.50% molx(Bi$\_$2/O$\_$3/+MnO+CoO+Cr$\_$2/O$\_$3/+2Sb$\_$2/O$\_$3/) and sintered at 1250.deg. C present excellent V-I characteristics in view of transient surge suppression. Gapless arrester element with aluminum electrodes shows also good reliability against impulse shock and marks a low voltage clamping ratio(V$\_$1KA/V$\_$1mA/<2.0) compared with the conventional SiC varistors.