Smart #3 Reviews

Ask Toyota — the world’s biggest carmaker — and two brands are enough.Yes, Toyota makes trucks under the Hino brand and also has the minnow Daihatsu in its stable, but it is essentially Toyota and Lexus and that’s it.Part of Toyota’s success in Australia is it sells a vehicle for everyone, and every occasion.Lexus rarely steps on its big brother’s toes, with a clear premium divide separating the two.Now Chinese behemoth, Geely, is gearing up for an assault on the Australian market.It has a strong toehold Down Under with Volvo and Polestar, but after that is where things get murky.It also has Lotus, Smart, Zeekr and its home brand Geely to forge ahead with in 2025.Volvo and Polestar have clearly positioned themselves in the luxury space, but Geely, Smart and Zeekr are chasing the same mainstream buyers.All three are electric only, and are launching with semi-premium compact and mid-size SUVs.They are essentially the same vehicle underneath a slightly different styled skin. But electric cars all have similar looks, honed for aerodynamics, which gives them all a same-same-ness despite a tweaked non-grille or headlight treatment.The brands all share motors, batteries and tech features, which helps amortise costs, but can be a challenge when attempting to stand out from the crowd.Geely recently merged two of its brands, Zeekr and Lynk and Co, to reduce internal competition.According to Reuters, Geely boss Gui Shengyue said the integration would make the company more competitive."If we don't integrate , we must face issues such as internal competition ... and redundant investments in many aspects such as R&D, sales, which is stupid," he said according to Reuters.Geely isn’t alone in crowding its own space.The huge Volkswagen Group has Volkswagen, Skoda and newcomer Cupra all lobbing cars in a similar price bracket.The big difference is only Cupra is new, the VW Group isn’t attempting to launch three new brands in the space of 12 months that sell effectively the same cars.It’ll be a challenge for these three Chinese brands to stand out.They also face a wave of competition following them across the sea. GAC, Aion, Xpeng, Skywell, Leapmotor and Deepal are all planning to launch or have launched into the same market space as their compatriots.Not to mention established brands such as BYD, Chery, GWM and MG already with a group of loyal buyers and brand cache.It is starting to feel like China’s car industry is replacing the building industry responsible for towering ghost towns as its biggest economic driver and they need to find export markets quickly to keep the production lines open and the steel mills firing.Australia is a prime target with its lack of tariffs and relatively close proximity to the Chinese mainland.There are storm clouds brewing on the edge of the Australia new car market, though.Electric cars still only make up about 8.3 per cent of new cars bought through the first 11 months of 2024. More EVs have found homes this year than last, but less than 10 per cent is still relatively niche.Private buyers — generally the ones snapping up EVs — are stepping away from new car purchases at an alarming rate.Double digit drops in private buyers in each of the past four months compared to the year before is a worrying trend according to the head of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber.“This is a disturbing trend which illustrates how cost of living pressures are impacting households,” he said.Only time will tell if these brands can make it work, but it’ll be a tough slog in 2025.

The Smart #1 is a good car, an impressive one, even — and yes, you pronounce it ‘Hashtag one’. This comes as a surprise as many first efforts from electric car manufacturers fresh to mature markets such as Australia and Europe have been disappointing.So often there’s a compromised suspension set-up, poor steering feel, software bugs or awful driver assistance systems. None of that in the #1, which is packed with technology, has decent driving range and very pleasant steering. It also looks quirky — in a good way, my art director partner tells me — and has one of the best ride and handling balances of any electric car on sale. It is quite good value, too, the Premium I sampled costs $58,900, before on-road costs and has 19-inch alloy wheels, synthetic leather upholstery, power adjust seats with heating, a heat pump, a Beats sound system and luxury ambience to rival Benz’s entry-level EQA, which is $30,000 more expensive. The #1 is also cheaper than a petrol-powered base model Mercedes-Benz GLA 200. You really have to want that Merc badge.Electric stats are decent, the #1 Premium has a 66kWh battery allied with a 200kW/343Nm rear-mounted electric motor for a brisk 0-100km/h sprint of 6.7 seconds and respectable 440km WLTP driving range. A more powerful Brabus variant is available but the regular #1 is plenty fast. There’s also a more distinctive coupe-like #3 available in a lewd Photon Orange paint that really stands out. To be fair, the Smart #1 had its fair share of gremlins. Twice during my week with the car the screen went dark and interfacing with the multimedia system (mostly to disable active safety systems) was like pulling teeth — it would be nice if the cute digital fox actually did something helpful. Hopefully, over-the-air software updates can fix these niggles. There’s also the back seats, which you can’t fold flat from the boot. The pull tabs to raise the backrest end up out of reach when they are folded, so you can’t pull them back up. Annoying and not salvageable by software updates. The real elephant in the room for Smart is the brand’s meaning today. Certainly if the #1 was in a room otherwise filled with Smart’s back catalogue like the minuscule 2.5-metre long ForTwo, or the 840kg Smart Roadster. An ultra-quick back-story of the brand: it started as a 49/51 joint venture between Swatch Watch’s owner, Hayek, and Daimler-Mercedes. The tiny ForTwo launched in 1998 as a response to the new millennium. Efficient, small and affordable but with endless customisation and pops of colour to make the chic urbanite use the car as a fashion accessory as much as a mode of transport. The latter new Mini and Fiat 500 did better jobs, but the Smart was a trailblazer. Smart became a Mercedes subsidiary after that and, in 2019, Chinese automotive giant Geely bought a 50 per cent stake, reinvigorating the range with what you see here — electric-only, semi-luxury SUVs.That’s pretty much the same space as a Volvo EX30, Polestar 2 and Zeekr X, which are all related to both of Smart’s new models. Outside of them, the circa-$60K electric car price bracket includes other small electric SUVs like the Hyundai Kona electric, the Renault Megane E-Tech and BYD Atto 3, with bigger models like the Tesla Model Y, XPeng G6, Deepal S07 and incoming BYD Sealion 7 also in the same price sphere. What a nightmare!Aside from being quite accomplished and having cute animal avatars like the Fox (or optional Cheetah), there isn’t a whole lot about Smart’s ethos that stands out — at least to my radar. There’s certainly less brand cachet than Audi, BMW, Lexus or Mercedes-Benz. That leaves the success of these new entrants, in what will be a shrinking new-car market come 2025, down to a combination of price and brand awareness. Smart has a leg-up on the price game as it is not imported by Mercedes-Benz Australia, which runs a fixed-price agency model. Instead, LSH Auto — one of the largest Mercedes-Benz dealer groups — is importing the cars. This means, in theory, discounting should be possible. Sharing dealership space with Mercs could be good, or could be negative, it all depends on the service and shopping experience. But they will probably be more visible than other new Chinese brands not associated with existing luxury brands. Will Smart succeed? Out of all the new names in the game, the tie-in with a legacy manufacturer gives it a semblance of sales security. However, if the cars don’t stand out to buyers, or aren’t priced right, it could go south fast. Let me know your feelings, are you comfortable taking a chance on an unknown brand? What kind of features would draw you in? Do you care about brand ethos? Have your say in the comments section. 

Smart is back as an EV-only brand, with the #3 Brabus being the fastest, most expensive... and most compelling? Not only does the dual-motor AWD small SUV look like a Mercedes-Benz GLA AMG 45, it goes like one too, with blistering acceleration and athletic dynamics to match the racy styling. A Mercedes and Geely co-op, the #3 is related to the Volvo EX30, so brims with lots of safety and tech.

Another week, another new car company joins the Australian market.

Australia and New Zealand's independent assessor of vehicle safety, ANCAP, has awarded the Smart #1 and Smart #3 SUVs respective five-star safety rating

The Smart #3 Brabus isn’t just the fastest, most powerful model in the #3 range, it also makes the first time the German performance sub-brand has been in Australia in over a decade.

The Premium is the mid-level grade in the #3 family, above the Pro+ but below the Brabus.

The Pro+ is the entry to the Smart #3 family, listing at $57,900. Though to give credit to Smart, it definitely doesn’t feel like you’ve cut any corners.Even entry-level cars score 19-inch alloys, a panoramic roof, LED lighting, a powered tailgate and a 12.8-inch central screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a 9.2-inch digital dashboard.The Pro+ is a single-motor, rear-drive configuration, which isn't all that common in the EV world, where most position their electric motor on the front axle for front-wheel drive. That motor produces 200kW and 315Nm, meaning a sprint to 100km/h in 5.8 seconds and a 180km/h top speed.It also nabs a 66kWh battery, delivering a WLTP driving range of 435km. And when it comes time to charge, you can choose between home AC charging (either power point or wall box), or 150kW DC fast charging, which should take around 30 minutes to go from empty to 80 per cent charged.

The Smart #1 Brabus marks a return to Australia for not just the Smart brand, but also for the lesser-known Mercedes-focused performance brand of Brabus.Both were last in Australia attached to the city-friendly and petrol-powered ForTwo and ForFour more than a decade ago, and now they’re back, with the Brabus model acting as the flagship in #1 family.A small, all-electric SUV, the #1 can also be had in Pro+ ($54,900) and Premium ($58,900) guises, but the Brabus ($67,900) delivers a unique look, a sportier drive experience and significantly more power, thanks to its twin-motor set-up.While other models in the Smart #1 feature a single rear-mounted electric motor, the Brabus adds a motor at the front axle, giving it AWD, and which ups the outputs to a punchy 315kW and 543Nm, dropping the sprint to 100km/h to a very fast-feeling 3.9 seconds.All Smart #1 models share the same 66kWh battery, but how far you can travel between charges comes down to the trim you choose, with the WLTP driving range either 400km, 420km or 440km. The Brabus, of course, covers the least ground between charges, owing to its dual-motor setup and prodigious power outputs.

Smart is part-owned by Germany's Mercedes-Benz and China's Geely, and is promising quality premium-feeling EVs at affordable(ish) prices as a result. We put the #3 to the local test to find out if it lives up to that promise.