Smart #1 Premium review: Best all-rounder in 2023?

With the Smart #1 Premium, the former small car brand has delivered a huge hit on the market, not just metaphorically mind you. Because the new one no longer has anything to do with a classic Smart ForTwo or ForFour. We took a closer look at the #1 Premium for a week.

Above all is the Smart # 1 an electric car from the close cooperation between Smart (Mercedes-Benz) and the Chinese automobile giant “Geely”. Mercedes (Daimler) launched a joint venture with Geely in 2019. This is called “Smart Automobile”, not only is the #1 the first car completely developed and designed by Smart under the Geely x Mercedes joint venture.

With its in-house SEA platform, Geely has a suitable platform for all kinds of new electric vehicles. Because together with the #1, two more compact SUVs / compact cars will follow under Geely's mantle on the German market in 2024, namely the Volvo EX30 and the ZEEKR X.

Of course, there will also be YouTube videos and reports on the models mentioned in the future TechnikNews consequences. Now it's all about the Smart #1 Premium.

tl; dr:

The Smart #1 is available in five different “trims”. We tested the highest trim with rear-wheel drive called “Premium” for you, which has very good technical data. It is powered by a 200 kW / 272 hp rear motor and draws its power from a 66 kWh NCM high-voltage battery installed in the underbody. Of this, 62 kWh are available for driving. The rear-wheel drive offers 330 nm of torque so that you can get off to a quick start at traffic lights.

The Smart #1 Premium can be charged with 22 kW AC three-phase and up to 150 kW CCS fast charging. With a 22 kW AC charge it is ready to drive again in just over 3 hours and 30 minutes and with the 150 kW at the fast charging station in just over 27 minutes. These are very good values ​​for this vehicle class.

Smart specifies the WLTP range as 440 km, but as always, this looks a little different in everyday life. You can easily cover a good 330 to 350 km with the #1, which you can then recharge quite quickly. During our charging processes, we often had charging outputs of 155 kW, which is even more than Smart itself states.

The charging curve looks like this, with 20% plugged in the #1 jumps straight up to 130 kW, then when the battery is well warmed it increases to the mentioned 155 kW at the peak. Therefore the 27 minutes from 20 to 80% are quite realistic. The #1 also scores points in many respects when driving; the chassis, among other things, is very well tuned and it corners extremely well. Manual and automatic battery preconditioning for quick charging is already integrated. This doesn't happen with the ID.3, for example, where you charge for much longer in winter without a warm battery.

Design: Mercedes EQ design language

The design of the Smart #1 is definitely related to that of Mercedes' EQ models. That's because Mercedes designers will be on board with the #1 and future new models. We really liked the design, it looks modern and quite chic. The very steep rear, on the other hand, was not our cup of tea; the next larger Smart #3 also shows its best side in the rear area.

From the outside, the #1 definitely looks impressive. And yes, you are literally sucked in by the looks that this vehicle is currently attracting. Whether out of curiosity or astonishment as to why a “big car” with the Smart logo is driving around here. We can't say that, but if you want an eye magnet, you definitely haven't come to the wrong place with the Smart #1. The external design is rounded off by the optional two-tone metallic paint, consisting of a black roof and, in our case, a light lime green color (not exactly the color I would personally choose). But fortunately the configurator offers a few color combinations so that the gray on gray on the German roads is thinned out.

Interior: Unconventional but familiar

The interior of the Smart# 1 Premium, as the name suggests, offers a lot of premium. But how can you understand that? How about! Good choice of materials, no rattling, hardly any piano lacquer and finally a smooth infotainment with three displays. The Smart #1 Premium offers all of this and a little more, even in the cheaper versions Pro and Pro+. As standard, e.g. B. the 12,8 inch (approx. 33 cm) infotainment display and a narrow but at least clearly visible driver display behind the steering wheel. There is also an optional head-up display, which is installed in the window prois projected and is very easy to read.

Also available in our test car is a wireless cell phone holder for charging in the top compartment of the “center tunnel,” which extends as an armrest through the entire middle of the front passenger compartment. Two USB Type-C ports at the front and back round off the connectivity package for end devices. The displays offer good resolution, although we would have liked to see OLED displays here. The front two seats in the Premium are fully electrically adjustable and offer very good support and comfort even on longer journeys. In addition, there is at least a pleasant seat heating at the front, but unfortunately there is no seat cooling. Likewise for a steering wheel heating. The latter is now in the configurator and will probably be installed in newer models.

From the Premiumtrim Smart #1 onwards, there is also a Beats sound system with 13 speakers + subwoofer in the trunk (which takes up some space). There is also enough space in the rear of the #1, and there is also enough space for the legs in the front seats. Here they have really created an excellent seat for the rear passengers. Thanks to the slightly higher design of the #1, you also have enough headroom.

Infotainment: Android Automotive, but with strong peculiarities.

It's immediately obvious if you know Geely that, like with them Volvo and Zeekr models also rely on an Android automotive infotainment system for the Smart #1. In contrast to Volvo, however, Smart has developed a lot of things in-house and at first glance it doesn't look like a system from Google.

If you like this more, you should go for the Volvo EX30. By the way, we also have a lot of content planned for spring 2024. Back to Smart Infotainment, this is not developed by Mercedes, but rather a collaboration between Geely and Mercedes. As already mentioned, it is based on an Android system, this becomes apparent if you are used to using an Android smartphone.

The system looks very playful at first, but it is very easy to use and is logically structured. Functions can be accessed quickly and there is almost no jerking at all. There is even a dedicated Spotify app that is designed to match the design of the rest of the infotainment. Very nice! The 360 ​​degree all-round camera has a good resolution and offers convenience functions such as a 3D model of the car with turn signal animations and blind spot warnings. So where is the Google Play Store? Yes, Smart doesn't have that yet, at least at the moment. Smart has its own app store for this, but there isn't much there at the moment apart from a few games and the TuneIn Radio app.

Polyfox causes mixed feelings.

A Polyfox greets you on the home screen in Smart #1, this is the personal avatar and assistant of #1. At least in China they love that sort of thing. It's a bit difficult here in the country. But at least in our eyes it wasn't disturbing. The voice assistant understood us well and can also open windows etc. Everything a modern voice assistant in the car should be able to do. Although there is still a need for expansion here. The system is already running very smoothly and we are looking forward to more OTA updates that will be introduced over the lifespan of the #1 and other models. Yes, you heard that right, all functions and bugs on the Smart #1 can be easily updated at home via over-the-air updates. Fun fact on the side, the Polyfox or the idea does not come from China, but from the German Mercedes developers.

E-route planning: Still very expandable.

The so-called e-route planning in Smart #1 is at least available. But it doesn't really work well, in the normal navigation system without a running route you can display charging stations and you have all the important information like how many places are occupied/free or how many kW can be charged. Or whether the column is defective etc. That's really well done too. But if you automatically add charging stations to the route, the good stuff suddenly stops. Because then you can only view the charging stations that are on the route without any information.

Smart itself is already aware of this error. In a conversation with Smart Deutschland CEO Wolfgang Ufer, I learned that they want to roll out a new e-route planning system for vehicles at the beginning of next year. We are curious to see how this works and whether it is any good. We will of course keep you updated.

Further infotainment details: image gallery

After all, we don’t want to withhold the technical data of the Smart #1 infotainment from you. The Smart #1 infotainment is working Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 Smart Cockpit Chip, this is supported by 128 GB of internal memory. That's a lot of storage space for a car infotainment system. Of course, we hope that Smart will soon offer streaming services for the charging time; the platform at least has enough power to support all of this.

Here you can set, among other things, the quick controls, ambient lighting and many different charging options. In terms of operation, Smart is definitely impressive with #1. We found the system to be very responsive and didn't have any Proproblems during our week-long test drive. Only the points already mentioned above should definitely be addressed.

Where is Android Auto & Apple CarPlay?

A legitimate question that now finally has an answer. So far there has been no trace of the two screen mirroring providers on the Smart #1. But from the OTA update 1.3.0 you will be provided with wireless Android Auto as well as wireless CarPlay. Both can of course also be used via cable. We will find out for you how well and, above all, how stable this works in a later test of the top model “Smart #1 Brabus”.probeer

By the way, you can at least activate “seat ventilation” and the steering wheel heating via OTA in China. It is not yet known whether this will be installed in the European models. At least in the infotainment there is evidence of seat ventilation.

Who is the Smart #1 actually for?

This can be summarized simply for those who were already considering a VW ID.3 or comparable models, but want to have more headroom and use extra space in the rear, but can get by with a slightly smaller trunk. Because the #1 only holds 313 liters in the Premium trim, 976 liters with the rear seat folded down. By the way, this can also be moved slightly so that you get a little more trunk space without having to fold down the seats. I didn't really find the trunk to be "too small", I would classify it as usable, but you can fold down the seats for larger errands.

Range & consumption

Let's get back to the technical facts. In terms of consumption, the #1 Premium has 18-19 kWh / 100 km. These are normal values ​​compared to the ID.3 Pro Performance doesn't do any better. But it does have a slightly more usable battery, at least if you opted for the 58 kWh battery in the ID.3. Therefore, realistic ranges of 350km are quite feasible in everyday life. Everything above that could perhaps be achieved in the summer. However, the #1 scores with one of the best fast charging curves in its segment, which means that, conversely, it goes faster than with the ID.3 or the like.

But if you want a directly functioning Android Auto and CarPlay connection that also runs stably, but can do without interior quality and OTA updates, you should take a closer look at the ID.3. Or better yet, just wait for the next facelift, when the much more powerful 4.0 hardware and software will be available.

Otherwise you can't go wrong with the Smart #1, it is a very good all-rounder in many areas, it is even superior to VW when it comes to towing capacity. It can officially tow up to 1,6 tons with brakes, which is not bad for this size in the car segment these days. And best of all, the Smart #1 only gets better with regular OTA updates. But I have refrained from praising the morning before the evening, so we have rated the Smart #1 Premium as it currently stands. And he does it really well.

Driving comfort and assistance systems

Since this report already goes beyond the scope, I would like to be a little briefer here. The ride comfort is very good, the chassis is well tuned and it corners very well. Thanks to the standard rear-wheel drive with 272 hp, the larger Smart moves forward well. The assistance systems include everything you could want in a modern car. Everything is on board, from adaptive cruise control to a steering assistant and autonomous parking assistant. The cameras have a good and usable resolution, the visualization during automatic parking is successful and you have more trust than with VAG vehicles, for example.

The ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) is activated via the steering wheel with “real” buttons, and the distance is also set there. In all cases, #1 always braked appropriately, just like you would have done yourself. Only the steering assistant still needs some fine-tuning; it wasn't as "reliable" as VW's Travel Assist, for example. The Matrix LED lighting system, which is part of the series from the Premium onwards, dimmed perfectly in all cases and there wasn't a single headlight flash , but something should still be done to the “fluidity” here, because the Matrix LED system is sometimes reminiscent of a strobe light show: it fades signs or other road users in and out so quickly and jerkily. This looks “weird” not only for the driver, but also for other road users.

This makes the ID.3 with the IQ.Light system significantly rounder and smoother. This immediately seems higher quality and “safer”. Otherwise there's not much to complain about, we're not missing any assistance system in the #1. By the way, there are also digital car keys via Bluetooth, these are currently still in beta and we were unable to test them thanks to the lack of app access. However, up to 5 digital keys should be possible, which can also be shared with family and friends.

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