Smart #1 2024 Review

The #1, as its numeral suggests, forms the entry point to the reborn Smart range, it's opening price of $54,900 for the base Pro+ grade making it a mid-tier EV offering. While it's far from the cheapest battery-electric out there, it's also not quite in premium territory either - Smart describes itself as “light-premium”, so that positioning is certainly on-brand.

Forking out $58,900 will put you in the mid-grade Premium, while there's a big jump from there to the $67,900 Brabus flagship - though you do get a fair whack more oomph for that extra spend. More on that later.

Standard features for all #1 variants include 19-inch alloys, wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, LED headlamps, a powered tailgate and a panoramic glass sunroof. Moving up into the Premium grade adds a Beats audio system, adaptive matrix LED headlamps, a head-up display and leather upholstery.

Interestingly, the Premium also gains additional EV hardware, like an efficiency-boosting heat pump, which extends the range 20km further, and a faster AC home charger to juice up its battery in less time.

At the top of the tree, the #1 Brabus boasts its own unique interior treatment: microsuede upholstery with red contrast stitching and red seatbelts, alloy pedals red brake calipers and red exterior highlights.

All Smarts are covered by a 5-year, 150,000km warranty, while the battery pack is covered by a separate 8-year, 150,000km warranty.

The #1 has scored a full five-star overall rating in Euro NCAP testing, with Smart’s local distributor pledging to make test vehicles available to ANCAP for the purpose of conducting an Australia-specific crash safety test.

As standard, all Smart #1s receive autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, front and rear cross traffic alert, lane-keep assist (with lane departure warning), blind spot monitoring, a 360-degree parking camera, front and rear parking sensors, driver fatigue monitoring, and an overspeed alert. Seven airbags provide protection in a crash, with dual front, front side, head-level curtain airbags for front and rear, plus an additional head-protecting centre bag between the front seats.

The Chinese love a bit of tech, and the #1's fit-out certainly reflects that. Most functions are accessed via the infotainment screen, though, which can lead to some frustration when things that are easily accomplished in other cars – such as turning down the volume or adjusting a wing mirror – must be done by prodding the screen instead. The driver does get audio controls on the steering wheel, but passengers have no means of adjusting volume other than through the screen.

At least the infotainment operating system is responsive and fairly easy to understand, and there's plenty of real-estate on the huge 13-inch screen, so your fingers won't be accidentally pressing the wrong button by mistake. But it would be a solid move if Smart followed the rest of the industry and provided more hard switches for key functions.

It's good to see things like powered and heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, powered tailgate and surround-view parking cameras all as standard. The Premium gets automatic parking assist.

Like many EVs, the performance of the #1 varies with the number of motors fitted. For the Pro+ and Premium grades, there’s a single 200kW motor between the rear wheels producing 343Nm of torque – enough grunt to deliver a zero-to-hundred sprint time of 6.7 seconds. We didn’t have the stopwatch with us, but after driving both models in and around Brisbane, that performance stat certainly felt truthful: not too quick, but certainly not slow.

The Brabus flagship kicks things up a notch though, with an extra motor mounted up front not only giving the benefit of all-wheel drive and a combined output of 315kW and 543Nm, but also ratcheting down the 0-100km/h sprint to an ultra-rapid 3.9 seconds when you put the drive selector into ‘Brabus’ mode.

No matter which variant you choose, every #1 that comes to Australia will supply its motor/s from a 66kWh lithium-ion NCM battery, with a claimed 10-80 percent charge time of just 30 minutes on a 150kW DC fast charger. The Pro+ boasts a range of 420km on a single charge while the Premium ekes out a slightly longer 440km range, due to its additional heat-pump tech. The Brabus, thanks to the extra power suck of its dual-motor configuration, has a maximum range of 400km.

While the launch drive program only gave us a surface-level experience of the #1, it didn’t take too much time behind the wheel to realise that this is a car that excels in the cut-and-thrust of city traffic.

A tight turning circle, excellent forward and over-the-shoulder vision, and perky performance from even the single-motor variants translate to a machine that’s adept at slipping through dense traffic. It rides pretty well, too. There is no substantial pitching when accelerating or decelerating, and the damping takes advantage of a fairly long suspension stroke to help iron out bumps. With a 1780kg to 1900kg kerb weight, the #1 definitely rides like a heavy car (and that’s also why RWD variants take nearly seven seconds to hit 100km/h despite producing 200kW). Thanks to sharp in-gear acceleration and responsive steering the Smart #1 certainly doesn’t feel ponderous. There’s a sense it could get a bit bouncy on a winding road with big undulations, but it’s well suited to urban/suburban/highway work.

Our biggest complaint concerns the over-exuberance of some driver-assist systems. Not only was the overspeed warning overzealous when exceeding the signposted limit, but the camera that detects speed signs routinely observed signs on service roads and adjoining streets, and, on several occasions, detected signs that didn’t even seem to exist. Having to dive into sub-menus on the screen to deactivate it was another pain point.

The lane-keep warning can also return some false-positives, often getting confused by the remnants of painted-over lanes, tar lines, or even just seams between road repairs. As with the overspeed warning, we got pretty good at switching it off.

Don’t let the ground clearance or black wheelarches fool you: the #1 is a city slicker.

There’s more than a whiff of Mercedes inside the #1, and that’s no great surprise considering Smart’s design HQ is co-located with Benz’s studios in Germany. The appearance of the flying buttress centre console feels particularly Benz, and other aspects of the interior, from the upholstery to the plastics to the switchgear, all possess a Germanic sheen.

It all looks very fashionable, and the graphics on the slim electronic instrument panel, central infotainment screen, and the head-up display (Premium and Brabus) were clear and easy to read. The Infotainment, which runs Smart’s own proprietary operating system, shows promise with its fun and bright presentation. An on-screen cartoon fox avatar is a playful touch, although it sadly remains static and won't interact most of the time. The built-in navigation software wasn’t activated in the cars we drove.

But what’s probably the best aspect of the #1 is the spaciousness of its cabin. The front seats feel about standard for the segment (perhaps even a little hemmed-in thanks to that tall centre console) but the back seats are almost limo-spacious. There’s loads of knee-room and foot-room, even for long-legged passengers, and the #1’s tall roofline and upright hatch mean scalps shouldn’t scrape the headlining. A pair of rear air vents and USB ports are also provided for backseaters, and the floor is flat enough for a centre passenger to be reasonably comfortable… if they’ve got slim hips.

With China being a core market for Smart’s new products, we have that country's preference for commodious back seats to thank for all the cabin volume. Other thoughtful touches include the large storage tray under the centre console, a high-mounted wireless phone charging pad with a retractable lid, reclinable rear backrests, and sliders on the rear bench if you need a bit more than the boot’s 273L capacity. That small boot capacity may be a deal-breaker for some, especially those needing to tote something as bulky as a pram. It's not like there’s more luggage space up front either; although there’s a frunk underneath the #1’s curvy bonnet, it’s VERY compact and only adequate for stowing the charge cable.

It would be easy to be cynical about the revival of the Smart brand, to see it as the mere application of a well-known badge to unknown underpinnings. The shift from diminutive city cars to much bulkier quasi-SUVs is perhaps a step change too big, in too short a space of time.

But the truth is… the Smart #1 actually shapes up as a rather decent rig. Besides the small boot, the packaging is rather good and its around-town driveability should certainly hit the mark for commuters. On top of that, the cabin isn’t just comfortable, it has an abundance of backseat accommodation that is incredibly difficult to find in modern small SUVs. Lined up against cars like the Hyundai Kona Electric and Nissan Leaf, the #1 feels like a limousine.

It also sports more than a smidgin of personality, both inside and out, and that’s refreshing to see in an industry that’s become accustomed to ‘playing it safe’ with designs. The sheer diversity of the colour palette alone is a great thing to see.

Will it make sense for you? The pricing is about right for a near-premium starter EV, and mid-grade seems to make the most sense; the extra performance of the Brabus is fairly unnecessary. However, with just three dealerships in Aussie distributor LSH Auto’s network so far signed up to sell Smart products, you may find it challenging to buy the Smart #1 if you don’t live in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane’s metro areas.

2024 Smart #1 at a glance:
Price: $54,900 (Pro+), $58,900 (Premium), $67,900 (Brabus), plus on-road costs
Available: Now
Powertrain: Single or Dual AC induction motors
Output: 200kW/343Nm (single motor), 315kW/543Nm (dual motor)
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 66kWh lithium-ion, Nickel Cobalt Manganese
Range: ADR – 420km (Pro+), 440km (Premium), 400km (Brabus)
Energy consumption: 15.71 kWh/100km (Pro+), 15.00 kWh/100km (Premium), 16.5 kWh/100km (Brabus)
Safety rating: Five-star (Euro NCAP, 2023)

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