Smart EQ ForFour
Still small range for Smart EV, but a smaller price tag
THIS is the Smart EQ ForFour. After the government’s £3,500 plug-in car grant has been taken into account, it’s priced from £17,285, placing the new car right into the same ballpark as the VW Group electric city car trio of the Skoda Citigo-e iV, the SEAT Mii Electric and the Volkswagen e-up!.
It’s an update to the Smart range (the smaller ForTwo Coupé and Cabriolet also get similar revisions) following two big changes for the company: first, the move to drop combustion engines completely in order to operate as a fully electric manufacturer; and second, since Chinese giant Geely took a 50 per cent stake in the company to form a joint venture with Mercedes. The latter should see some interesting developments over the coming years. The first result of the collaboration will be shown in 2022, when an all-new Smart makes its debut, and the firm has confirmed that it will be expanding into the larger supermini segment, too.
While the name of the EQ ForFour is new, the updates to the car are mostly cosmetic. From the outside, the hatch gets a sleeker bonnet, larger air dam and some refreshed tail-lights, while new wheel designs and colours also feature. The cabin feels a step up in quality over most city car rivals, and for 2020 there are a couple of extra cupholders and a smartphone tray.
What hasn’t changed, however, is the infotainment system: a rather clunky, slow Renault-derived set-up which lacks Apple CarPlay. Happily, a larger screen with full smartphone compatibility will be offered within a couple of months.
Access to the cabin is reasonably easy, thanks to doors that open extremely wide, but there’s only so much that can be done to provide space for passengers inside a car that is less than 3.5 metres long. The boot is a rather minuscule 185 litres, too, due to the location of the electric motor.
Under the skin, the EQ ForFour carries on with the same rear-mounted 80bhp motor driving the back wheels. A 12.7-second 0-62mph time is 0.2 seconds down on the VW Group cars’. But that’s not much on paper, and at town speeds, the ForTwo feels lively. Its peak torque of 160Nm is instantly available, and it helps the Smart dart around with a puppy-like enthusiasm.
It’s really manoeuvrable, too. The car’s tiny turning circle and narrow body make fighting through crowded streets a cinch, and only a hum that’s generated to act as a warning to pedestrians disturbs the peace at low speed. However the ride comfort isn’t quite as good as a Hyundai i10’s.
With the battery pack mounted low in the chassis, the EQ feels more stable through corners than the now-discontinued petrol version of the ForFour, but the likes of the i10 and the up! still handle more sweetly.
For some buyers, though, the biggest issue with the Smart EQ will be its range. A 17kWh battery means that, based on the official WLTP testing figures, it’ll cover around 81 miles between charging. That number is almost precisely half that of the Skoda Citigo-e IV – fine for a commuter car but impractical for anyone who might want to venture beyond the city limits.
Still, a 22kW on-board charger is fitted as standard, so topping up the battery from 10 to 80 per cent takes as little as 40 minutes.
The ForFour comes in a choice of three trim levels, and the entry-level Passion Advanced has pretty much all the kit that any city car buyer really needs; 15-inch alloy wheels, cruise control, climate control, and parking sensors are all fitted as standard. If you wish to venture higher up the range, however, the extra £1,150 for the Pulse Premium brings 16-inch alloys, a pair of sunroofs and a reversing camera.
Top-spec Prime Exclusive adds LED head and tail-lights, foglights with a cornering function, rain-sensing wipers and ambient interior lighting. Including the government grant, this flagship costs £19,585.
“The tiny turning circle and narrow body make fighting through crowded city streets a cinch”