SMART-LOOKING CAR WITH A BUCKETLOAD OF KIT AT THE PREMIUM LEVEL

SMART cars. Remember them? The tiny little two-seater micro minis were the epitome of gimmicky but served a niche purpose and sold well all over Europe.

Then, out of the blue, they said ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ which led to befuddled car enthusiasts wondering would they ever make a comeback.

Well, step forward the Smart #1 (they want us to pronounce it hashtag one, by the way) which is the first car to come from the new mothership that formed in 2019 between Mercedes and Chinese super company Geely.

The partnership is going to keep us busy as the conveyor belt of cars land on our shores. The #3 is being launched next week with more to come in the near future.

But today is all about this quirky looking EV that is quickly entering the mainstream crossover market. Geely owns Volvo and Lotus, so in advance of my week in the #1 I fully believed I would step into the cabin and think it was a new EX30. But this has its own identity, thankfully.

Which is a healthy thing in general as the crossover segment is becoming claustrophobic with increasingly blurred lines between the various brand designs.

They never like us talking about competitors, but as this is a brand new model I think it is only fair to say that the company will harbour hopes of taking on the likes of some big hitters like the obvious (stablemate) Mni Countryman, VW ID.3, Hyundai Kona, Toyota bZ4X, BYD Atto 3, the aforementioned EX30 and the full-EV versions of the Kia Soul and Niro.

It will be available to buy in “certain Mercedes showrooms” but they are not ruling out independent Smart showrooms in the future.

Entry price is as little as €37,479 (the Pro) but the more impressive and likely option is the second trim line, called Pro+, which will cost you €41,894.

There’s a bit of a jump to the Premium trim (my test vehicle) which would cost you €48,332 to sit in your driveway but you do get a hell of a lot of kit, including a 12-camera parking assistant which will pretty much park the car for you with the touch of a button.

All of them come with 19” wheels and can get you between 420-440km in a full charge thanks to the 66kW battery. There is a 49kW option too, but that will only get you 350km (ish) out of a full charge.

There s a 12.8” screen in the middle of the dash that has a

LOT going on in it (there’s a cartoon globe and a fox who is this car’s icon and reacts to your drive choices and behaviour) at the homepage level but once you move away it becomes more straightforward and user friendly. The kids adored the fox by the way, but the gimmick soon loses its appeal for the driver once you’ve seen it roll over for tummy rubs and sit up when you change ‘drive mode’.

There is also a 9.2” digital cluster and a 10” Heads-Up display and a 360-degree camera as standard.

I said it at the launch and I will happily repeat it here…one of the biggest selling points here is the (surprising) space inside with bucket loads of head space and leg room for four or five people.

The trade off? Well, the boot only offers 323 litres, so when Team Keany took it on the road for the weekend – we used every last drop of space.

Driving-wise it was great fun

and very easy. A little pet peeve was that the car kept telling me to stop blocking the camera when I was at roundabouts because the spokes of the steering wheel were getting in the way. Surely that is an oversight.

If speed is important to you, then you’ll be glad to know that it is spritely with a betterthan-average 0-100km/h in 6.7 seconds. However, if it is the most important feature then you have the option to splurge on the topspec 4WD Brabus, which is a is like a rocket though, which Robbie reviewed a couple of months ago and can get to 100km/h in 3.9seconds. Spicy.

It certainly turned heads for my test week and got a lot of questions from neighbour and colleagues.

The best thing I can say (and I hope it’s not taken the wrong way) is that it is inoffensive.

And what I mean is, this isn’t changing the wheel in anyway and design-wise it isn’t the most futuristic, bonkers-looking car out there. It is a good-looking and well-made car that has some nice Mercedes influence and is making the most of the Geely underpinnings.

The boot was small, but we managed. And it is hardly the first EV to choose to sacrifice the overall boot space. This will do well but won’t worry the bigger names just yet. New brands tend to slip in under the radar (with one obvious recent exception) so it is up to the car to win people over.

For now, this car has won me over. So much so that I am keen to try out the #3 next week. I shall report back.