A perennial underachiever during its time under Mercedes-Benz ownership, small car specialist smart is entering a new era as a joint venture between its former parent company and Geely. It has just revealed its first new model in eight years, and this time it’s not a two-seater microcar, but an electric SUV – the smart #1.
Pronounced rather embarrassingly in official materials as the “hashtag one”, the #1 is the first smart to be developed by Geely; it’s also the company’s first SUV and the first new product in its portfolio since the forfour was added in 2004. It is built on the Chinese conglomerate’s Sustainable Electric Architecture (SEA), which is promised to offer greater modularity and versatility for building different models.
In the case of the #1, it uses the smaller SEA2 platform and measures 4,270 mm long, 1,822 mm wide and 1,636 mm tall, with a 2,750 mm wheelbase. At launch, the car will be offered in rear-wheel-drive form only, producing 200 kW (272 PS) and 343 Nm of torque from its single motor. No zero-to-100 km/h sprint time was quoted, but smart did claim a top speed of 180 km/h. An all-wheel-drive model will be offered at some point, although no details were given.
Under the floor sits a 66 kWh lithium-ion battery that provides a range of between 420 and 440 km on the WLTP cycle. The #1 accepts up to 22 kW of AC charging power, which can fill the battery from 10% to 80% in under three hours. Alternatively, you can use a DC fast charger with an output of up to 150 kW, which will top up the battery in less than 30 minutes.
The pebble-smooth exterior carries over plenty of the design cues from the Concept #1 that previewed the car. These include full-width LED head- and taillights (with X-shaped light strips and optional quad headlight projectors), a trapezoidal front air intake with contrasting surrounding trim, flush door handles and a “floating roof” with an inset smart badge.
Also fitted is an active grille shutter and flat-faced wheels that measure up to 19 inches in diameter, enabling the #1 to deliver a drag coefficient as low as 0.29. The car also comes with four frameless windows, which is a nice touch.
Inside, the #1 retains the show car’s minimalist interior, albeit with five conventional seats instead of the fanciful four individual pews. Highlights include a pill-shaped dashboard that flows into the tall “floating” centre console and a large 12.8-inch touchscreen, which features a globe-style interface and even a fox as an avatar. The climate controls are built into the display.
Aside from the big centre screen, there’s also a slim 9.2-inch digital instrument readout as well as a ten-inch head-up display. A panoramic glass roof, a 13-speaker Beats sound system, park assist and a sliding rear bench are available. The boot measures just 273 litres but can be expanded to 411 litres, while the front boot is tiny at only 15 litres.
Safety-wise, the #1 is offered with seven airbags and a full complement of driver assistance features, including autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, lane centring assist, lane change assist, lane keeping assist and blind spot monitoring.
The #1 will initially be offered in a Launch Edition, limited to 1,000 units. It gets a unique chequered motif on the wheels, glass roof and the unique white leather upholstery, plus the gold exterior and interior highlights that were first seen on the Concept #1.
Like what you see? Well, time to prepare your chequebooks, then, as the smart #1 will be sold in Malaysia under Proton Edar. The national carmaker’s distributor signed a memorandum of agreement earlier in the year to become the brand’s official importer, distributor and dealer in Malaysia and Thailand.
GALLERY: smart #1 Launch Edition
GALLERY: smart #1 Premium
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All screen not button hell no
Easily this premium Geely 250K. Better I enjoy my RON95
The dimension for the ev smart #1 was mentioned wrongly, twice as wide, I thiNk one of it should be height.
You’re right, of course, and I’ve fixed the error. Thanks for pointing it out!
Won’t be cheap but it will provide Proton an image boost moving forward to electrification. Meanwhile Perodua still sleeping on ICE engines.
Price under rm100,000 or less, take my money…
The boot is smaller than a myvi…
Why need a big boot for a city car?
Good luck in getting parts.
Do you need PARTS ? Warrenty of 8 years with 150,000km warranty for Battery ? It is MAINTENANCE FREE !!! No Engine Oil, Radiator Coolant, Plugs, ATF oil, etc. ZERO !!! ZERO !! BMW Ev … 1st “maintenance” is in 24Months !!!!!!!
Good luck to fork out abundance of cash for battery replacement, inverter, etc etc…
You obviously have no clue on what is there to maintain for an EV.
Who talks about maintain? You don’t need parts when met accident? You don’t need parts to replace faulty parts?
The car not yet arrived, heck not even sold sold yet, and you know for a fact it has problems with parts for accident or faulty replacement? Who are you tryin to kid?
Keep on complaining, so why honda also no spare parts?
Why every smart #1 EV article must mention that it will be sold by Proton Edar?
Like, cuz, they gonna be selling them? Duhh
When is this Luanching in Malaysia ? Take my CASh if is between RM90k to 120K ( Similar version availiable in CHINA currently ). BYD ( Dolphin ) , XPeng G3 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDlzqxlhTow )
I smell Benz in every corner. But not surprised, Smart is under the same group right?
Smart to Merc with be how Mini is to Beemer.
It helps if you read
proton edar, smells like trouble
Smells like profits
Sell this cheaper than Mini SE, at Hyundai Kona Price, and everyone will queue to buy this! Take pre-order now Proton Edar!
Why the trend of making huge divider between passenger and driver? The is no drive shaft!
Available in RHD?
Selling price estimated around RM89k for base unit. Targetted to sapu the whole market. In China, estimated to sell for RM50K
Designed by an Iranian in Germany. why not using all the top Level PhD Iranian students and experts who are in Malaysia already?
http://goftarnews.com/the-smart-concept-1-designed-by-mohammad-hossein-amini-yekta-in-germany/
It is an EV and has a partition in the middle. X70 X50 already has a bridge/handle at the middle. Plus it also houses the gearbox i think underneath. Aint EV supposed to be more flexible in storage. Why we need familiarity in a brave new design.
Before getting this car you need to change to 3 phase current so your electric bill will be a bit lower?. I heard that to get lower monthly bills for 3 phase current you must able to wire it in a way that all wiring, for each of the 3 phases, are about at equal monthly load. Example: red phase at 275kwh, yellow 290kwh and blue at 310kwh.
However I am sure if using 3 phase current there is different TNB rates for peak & off peak hours.
This car would be excellent if it could be home charged from 7pm to 7am at 4kwh/hr and is able to discharge back into home at 1 to 2kwh/hr if it is still plug into a bi mode home smart charger.