CAR OF THE WEEK: Smart #1 mixes quality, style, and practicality

BY BRIAN BYRNE

IT’S 30 years since the Smart car brand was founded as a joint venture between the Swiss company that made the Swatch watch, and Daimler-Benz. The watch company’s chief executive Nicolas Hayek believed there was a need for a small and stylish city car that could be marketed in the same way as the successful timepieces.

Development costs needing extra investment meant that shortly after the first Smart model was rolled out in 1994, the German carmaker had acquired 100% of the shareholding. And though the diminutive 2- and 4-seater vehicles sold in significant numbers in Europe and other markets with high city populations, Daimler lost money on each and every sale.

Experimenting with an electric cabrio version from 2008, all Smart cars went totally electric in 2017. Still a loss-maker, but maybe showing a road ahead for the brand? In 2019, a joint venture deal with Chinese car giant Geely changed the whole concept of Smart. A new generation of electric cars, built in China and marketed globally through the Mercedes-Benz network, hit the roads with the Smart #1 in 2022, arriving in Ireland earlier this year.

Quirky looks of the predecessor have now become chirpy, with flowing lines and many two-tone colour options. Most significantly, the new Smarts are bigger, the #1 being larger than a Nissan Juke and targeting the EV segment’s main players like Hyundai’s Kona Electric and the VW ID.3. My review car was the top of the range and most powerful Brabus version, the red detailing and snappy alloys offering a car that looks very ... well, smart.

The marque branding is subtle, but everywhere. Black on the black front, white in the smooth front lights fairing, red in the rear lights clusters. The ‘c’ and ‘arrow’ circular and traditional Smart logo is large in a ‘flowing drop’ of the roof onto the C-pillar, maintaining the lineage from the original.

Inside, this is a spacious car for four and has a reasonable capacity for five if those in the rear are not burly rugby props. There’s an instant sense of quality design and build. The flowing shapes on the outside are echoed in the dashboard and doors trim inside, lots of silvered flash along with the red details of Brabus in my car. The centre infotainment screen is big, with a row of haptic electronic buttons along the bottom to access particular menu options, and the lower part of the screen itself offering access to climate management (unfortunately, that last disappears when using Apple Carplay, necessitating extra distraction tapping if you want to change things while driving).

The imagery on the main screen itself is kind of weird in the ‘Home’ space, but can be put away by driving in navigation mode. A small driver information screen works okay, though some of that funny graphic stays there throughout.

Along with the previously mentioned quality sense, this car is also very comfortable for all aboard, one of the advantages of dumping the 3.5-metre diminutive of the old ForFour for a practical compact family size of 4.3 metres. Reasonable elbow and head room, and legs in the back aren’t going to be chopped at the knees. You also get 56% more boot space.

I’ve briefly driven the entry level Smart #1 and it’s a nippy car with a 6.7s sprint to 100km/h capability. The Brabus review car trumps that significantly by getting across the line in 3.9s, thanks to an extra electric motor and a total output of 428hp. Mad, isn’t it, how EVs have changed our whole power experience from the 90hp-150hp that was our norm up to a few years ago?

The extra motor also means the Brabus has AWD, which helps to manage that rather excessive power. That said, it was possible to drive it like a pussy cat on a leisurely stroll across the garden as easily as a cheetah streaking to a kill.

The rated 400km range of this one did seem to work out for me reasonably accurately, and when I did have to charge it up to 80% from 25% it did so before I had finished my filling station coffee. So it can be a viable everyday motor.