How about a Smart Electric Drive through city traffic and parks? , that’s exactly what Smart Fortwo offers. A small, manoeuvrable urbanized car with room for two people, a half-dozen bags of groceries, and an approx. $600 a month lease- refreshingly different! Find more.
There’s the gasoline Fortwo’s powertrain with the Mitsubishi three-banger thrumming just behind and below you. Besides, there is an automatic manual transmission that works fine but is a little unpredictable; it’s hardly a refined or receptive experience. While the existing ForTwo’s under-the-cargo-floor engine emits lots of vibration, still its automatic manual gearbox is random unless you call the shifts for yourself and the ride is a bit ruthless. Turn the ignition key on and shift to drive, and there’s the creepy silence that we’ve grown familiar to with electric cars. Step on the gas, and it rush forward forward, with only a gentle whinge.
From a standing start, the ED feels very sprightly. With up to 89 pound-feet delivered pretty right off the bat, the Smart electric drive is very quick from stoplights, with surrounding drivers, obviously surprised with the ED’s quickness. Floor the throttle above 40 km/h (25 mpg or so) and the response is still good; but by 60 km/h a full throttle brings just a tepid response. Things really peter out above that, and the ED’s top speed is about 62 mph. The motor makes up to 20 kW in normal driving, but there’s a 30-kW “kickdown mode” wherein the smart gets a very obvious gush of vivacity.
The battery is just 16.5 kWh and is high-quality for an official range of 83 miles. After one test car has been driven forcefully for about 12 miles, we noticed range had dropped to about 80 percent. A 3.3-kW charger and J1772 charge connector are incorporated with the package and with a dryer-type 220-volt outlet it can be charged from 20 to 80 percent in three to four hours, or from completely dead to 100 percent in about eight hours.
With the help of an iPhone app specially designed by Mercedes-Benz and Daimler, owners will be able to keep tabs on the current state of charge of their vehicles, how much time is remaining until the battery is fully charged, or the location of the nearest charging station.
Electric power steering is optional on gasoline cars, but it comes standard on the electric model; braking actually feels better on the ED than in the gasoline version. The brakes in the Fortwo hard to modulate in the base Fortwo, but somehow the tuning for regenerative braking smoothed it all out and made it more predictable in normal driving. The regen has several modes; a light regeneration is engaged when you take your foot off the gas, then two stronger regen modes are smoothly engaged with the brake pedal.
Hence, the wrap up is almost exactly the same. Compared to the gasoline version, the electric smart has 308 pounds of extra weight. Also because the ED has rear-wheel drive, you don’t get the torque steer at low speeds that front-wheel-drive electric vehicles might be prone to. About the only thing that we didn’t like so much at least given the constraints of this tight little package was the obviously loud whine when maintaining speed. There’s a good deal more than we’ve experienced in the Mini E, which is almost certainly the closest car to which we can compare the ED.
Plans for the Electric Drive are quite limited originally. Beginning this October, Smart will distribute 250 (of 1,500, globally) Electric Drives to U.S. customers, but most of those cars will go to corporate, public, and educational fleets. Mass production will ramp up beginning in 2012. So are you planning to join the smarter race?
Tags: car, diamler smart, electric car, fortwo electric drive, full throttle, gearbox, Iphone, kwh, smart fortwo electric, whinge