Smart Car hitting the headlines
Manufacturers love a striking claim to fame to attach to their newly unveiled models at car shows, and Smart had two of the most impressive to boast about at last weekend’s Paris Motor Show: the world’s first production electric cabriolet and the world’s first firm to offer both combustion and fully electrified motors throughout its entire range. Not bad!
Sure, there may only be three models in the entire line-up, all of which are basically the same car with a few alterations, but it’s nice to see that Smart is still taking electric power seriously almost ten years after first trying it out on the streets of London, before releasing three successful previous generations of the Fourtwo Electric Drive before this point in time.
Smart Electric: Nippy blighters
Adding the 60kW (81bhp) motor to the Fourtwo Cabrio and Forfour means all three cars offer up around 100 miles of range per full charge, a 0-62mph time somewhere between 11 and 13 seconds, and most importantly, a bucketload of instant-torque hilarity for any self-respecting city commuter or B-road blaster. Seriously, can you think of a more fun package to ram a fairly powerful electric motor into?!
Smart Electric: Charging improvements
Smart was also keen to stress that charging was an issue that had been addressed for the upcoming model, with fast chargers coming installed as standard on all models, with the option of upgrading to a 22kW even-faster-charger that can top you up fully in as little as 45 minutes from home.
Other tech upgrades include a Smart Control smartphone app [could way actually say the word ‘smart’ any more in one sentence?], which includes features such as pre-entry climate control and smart [there we are!] control over your car’s charging process.
We can’t wait to get one of these little rippers in on test to give you our full impressions of what promises to be an up-and-coming big seller across the globe…
