Smart evangelists will tell you the marque revolutionised personal mobility on its arrival in the 1990s. Now as the motorcar undergoes one of the biggest transformations in its history, Smart hopes to do it all over again. Meet the #1, an electric crossover that’s Smart’s first dedicated all-electric vehicle and the beginning of its wholesale reinvention, that Dirk Adelmann, CEO Smart Europe calls “the nucleus of all things to come”.
The tiny Smart #1 electric SUV finally breaks cover
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Firstly, the important stuff. With a 66kWh battery pack it’s claimed the #1 will be good for up to 273 miles on a charge. That’s much further than the outgoing adapted EV variants of the ForFour and ForTwo, though a little short of a ‘safe’ 300-mile rating. Happily, with rapid-charging capability, it’ll be able to make the jump from 10 to 80 per cent charge using a 150kW charger in under 30 minutes.
Power is 272PS (200kW) while torque is 343Nm (253lb ft) from a rear-mounted electric motor, making the #1 capable of 112mph flat-out, with no acceleration figures yet given. With this being the first new Smart since 2014, and the first since Geely took its 50 per cent stake in the brand, it should come as no surprise the #1 runs on the group’s SEA electric architecture, which will go on to underpin Volvos in the future too.
While Geely handles the insides, Mercedes and Smart are still firmly in charge of its outsides. The #1 remains faithful in design to the concept we saw at last year’s Munich Motor Show. It’s moved a long way from the distinctive ForTwo look and shape that we associate with the Smart brand while still being recognisable both as a Smart and as a member of the Mercedes family.
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It’s an unfussy design driven by smooth surfacing, selective proportions and carefully-curated details. A creative use of colour, with two-tone motifs, is a familiar carryover from Smarts of old, as is a premium look that betrays its diminutive size – exactly what they were going for. It’s small, but not ForTwo small, stopping short of being able to park sideways like the original.
On the inside, it’s even more ‘Mini Merc’. The flowing cabin is laced with premium materials and tech. It also capitalises on the skateboard EV architecture with an impressive ratio of interior space to exterior size.
The 12.8-inch infotainment screen is the dominant feature, with a UI that’s designed to be customisable and user-friendly. There’s an ‘intelligent companion’ AI that you interact with via the voice controls. This appears to be a friendly fox in the images, but there will be a number of avatars buyers can choose from. Powering it all is a high-performance computer with OTA update capability for 75 per cent of the car’s ECUs.
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It goes on sale in 2023, and Smart is banking on the #1 to succeed, with volumes intended to meet and exceed what the marque has managed so far. With that being the case, it’ll need to be competitively priced, though no specific numbers have been given yet.
What do you think of the #1? Is the most important Smart since the original MCC as distinctive as that original? Let us know your thoughts…
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