Very few cars are as adept at negotiating the cut-and-thrust of city life as the humble Smart. Similarly, electric vehicles tend to prove a great fit for congested areas thanks to their lack of local emissions and silky smooth, silent powertrains.
Combine the two, then, and on paper you should have one of the best urban transport vehicles on the market. We’re driving the Smart ForFour Electric Drive for the first time to put that theory to the test.
Smart is keen to point out that, over the last few months, cities such as Rome, Milan and Paris have introduced partial bans on petrol and diesel cars entering city limits. With more built-up areas expected to do the same over the next few years, the latest incarnation of Electric Drive models are ideally placed to capitalise on such restrictions.
The new car, available in two-seat, four-seat and Cabrio form, is a slight evolution of the formula. The rear-mounted electric motor gains an additional five brake horsepower, and a useful 30Nm more torque. Similarly, a more advanced (but 20kg lighter) lithium-ion battery pack sees the range boosted – up to 96 miles on the NEDC cycle for the ForFour. However, that’s still three miles less than the VW e-up!, which has been on sale for three years now, and less than half the range of the 2017 Renault Zoe. Smart also claims that in the real-world, you’re unlikely to manage more than 75 miles at best.
More worryingly, UK buyers won’t be able to buy one with a 22kW fast charger until 2018. For now, the best you get is a 7kW wall box, which can top up the Smart to 80 per cent in two and a half hours. That means most buyers will either be resolute city dwellers or need to have a second car for longer journeys.
While range and charging limitations remain, the ForFour ED is a likeable package in itself. Like most EVs, the chunk of torque from a standstill means it feels sprightly away from the lights – as a 0-37mph time of 5.5 seconds illustrates. It’s notably less punchy than the lighter ForTwo, but performance is comparable to an e-up!. It’s quiet, too, with only a synthesized low-speed whirr to stop careless pedestrians from wandering into your path.
Our route around the French city of Toulouse didn’t give us loads of opportunity to test the handling, but on first impressions it feels just as nimble as the standard car – more so thanks to single speed motor. It’s certainly more stable than Smarts of old, while the ride is better, too: only large potholes catch it out and cause a thump to penetrate through the cabin. It’s perfectly acceptable for town driving, though an e-up! remains more composed and comfortable in and out of town.
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While outside new colour schemes and badging give away the ForFour’s electric powertrain, inside you’ll have trouble noticing a difference. A power and charge dial has replaced the dashboard-mounted rev counter pod, but that’s about it. There’s plenty of standard kit, though, including sat-nav, climate control and heated leather seats. There’s even a smartphone app allowing you to charge or even pre-heat/cool the ForFour remotely.
Our biggest reservation is the price; a top-spec turbo model comes in at just over £13,000, the Electric Drive is likely to cost more than £17,000 by the time it arrives – even after the generous government Plug-in Car Grant. Whether tempting finance can soften that sizeable blow deals remains to be seen.
- Model: Smart ForFour Electric Drive
- Price: £17,000 (est)
- Engine: 60Kw electric motor, 17.6kWh lithium-ion battery
- Power: 81bhp
- Torque: 160Nm
- Transmission: Single-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
- 0-62mph: 12.7 seconds
- Top speed: 80mph
- Range: 96 miles (NEDC)
- On sale: March