This paper presents the electrical characteristics with manufacturing process and performance evaluation of high performance zinc oxide varistors. ZnO varistors were fabricated with typical ceramic production methods with different thickness and the structural and electrical characteristics of ZnO varistors were investigated. All varistors exhibited high density, which was in the range of $5.41{sim}5.49g/cm^3$. In the electrical properties, the reference voltage increased in the range of $4.410{sim}5.250kV$ with increasing their thickness and the residual voltage exhibited the same trends as the reference voltage. In the long duration current impulse withstand test, E-2 and F-1 samples failed at the two and four shots of impulse current, respectively, but E-1 and F-2 samples survived 18 shots during the test. Before and after this test, the variation ratio of residual voltage of E-1 and F-2 samples were -0.34 % and 0.05 %, respectively, which were in the acceptance range of 5 %. According to the results of tests, it is thought that if the fabrication process such as insulating coating, sintering condition, and soldering method is improved, these ZnO varistors would be possible to apply to the station class arresters in the near future.