Smart Ed Full Review
Posted: 28 February 2008 by Adam Vaughan
Let's cut to the chase -- this is one of the most exciting green cars of 2008. Superficially, it's identical to the standard 'smart fortwo coupe' which is already on sale, but the revolutionary stuff happens under the boot. The 'ed', see, has ditched the fortwo's petrol-powered engine for a clean, green electric battery and drive-train that's neatly tucked under the boot space.
The result is a city runabout with performance that leaves the UK's other two electric cars for dust. Where the similar-sized NICE Mega City and Goingreen's G-Wiz splutter out at less than 50 miles on range, the ed keeps going for 72 miles before needing a recharge. That's good, but obviously means this is no intercity car. In an electric Wacky Racers-style contest, however, the Mega City would slip behind with its max speed of 40mph, leaving the G-Wiz to come in second on a miserly 50mph with the 'ed' roaring off into the distance at 60mph. During our test, we got to 50mph -- and would've hit 60mph if we hadn't run the battery down so much we couldn't make it to the motorway.
And what of that battery? Made in Switzerland -- good ethics points there -- it's a sodium-nickel chloride job which charges to full in eight hours. That's two hours more than the G-Wiz and Mega City but then you are getting extra range and realistically you'll mostly be charging the car overnight.
If you like the fortwo's interior and exterior, you'll like this car. We love the design, which feels at just the right pitch between hip yet functional -- one example being the dashboard's useful but cute frog-like 'eyes' displaying a clock and the remaining battery life. The fittings inside are of a high standard generally and -- a key one-up over the G-Wiz -- you get really good headspace. We had a roomy 10cm above our 5 foot 9 inch height.
We love the design, such as the dashboard's useful but cute frog-like 'eyes' displaying a clock and the remaining battery life
It seems odd to mention the inclusion of electric windows and a normal-sized steering wheel, but they're worth noting as the G-Wiz lacks them and has manual sliding windows and a tiny computer game-style wheel. The only bad bit about the interior is the tiny G-Wiz-sized boot space, which at four-feet wide and one foot deep is good for just one modest-sized suitcase -- unlike the roomy Mega City, which has a boot big enough for some serious shopping.
This car's a lot of fun to drive. For starters, it's an automatic, and you simply use the gear stick next to the handbrake to flick painlessly between drive, neutral and reverse. Moving off, the official 0-30mph acceleration of 6.5 seconds won't have Tesla Motors' execs trembling, but it does feel fast behind the wheel -- quick enough to jump out of junctions and not too disimilar to one of our regular drives, a modern VW Golf. Continue reading...
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