2014 Smart ED test drive

Had a meeting today with our local hybrid/EV group. Present were owners of 3 Leafs, 1 Volt, 1 Focus electric, 2 second gen Prius, 1 Prius C, 1 plug in Prius, 2 first gen Insights and 1 electric airplane (more on that at another time). After a two hour discussion on the merits, and short comings, of hybrids and EVs, including the 2014 i-Miev, we were presented with two 2014 Smart EDs to test drive.

Like the 2014 I-Miev, the 2014 Smart ED did everything an electric car should do. Range is similar to the i-Miev, fit and finish compares favorably, acceleration about the same, good front seat room and comfort, just no back seat and no cargo capacity.

One think the Smart ED did very well, like the i-Miev, is provide the driver with three driving modes. The nice part was how the driver selects each mode; paddle shifters. Comparing very favorable to the i-Miev's D, Eco and B, the Smart ED had D-, D and D+. D- gave minimal regen, D gave normal regen, and D+ gave full regen whenever lifting off the accelerator. Stepping on the brake pedal in any mode caused some rather aggressive regen.

Ride quality was not bad, but not as good as the i-Miev. The Smart also has two different size tires front and rear. One thing we all agreed on was that driver visibility was very good.

Smart has some rather unique purchasing and leasing options. Smart gives several thousand dollar credits if you purchase the "car" and lease the "battery". This will bring the price down to about $12,000 (without state incentives) with a battery lease charge of $80 a month. Battery lease also covers degradation. If battery drops below a certain capacity Smart will replace it at no charge. Also covered in the lease is all recommended maintenance, checks and periodic balancing. One of our group members repairs hybrid battery packs and said that this was the feature he liked most.

Leasing for 3 years with 30,000 miles was $59 for the car and $80 for the battery, or $139 a month. Best part of the lease is the first payment was only $875 up front if you qualified for a USAA incentive (without add $1000 for cap reduction). Mitsubishi has not released lease rates of the 2014 i-Miev yet, Focus Electric is $179 with over $4,000 upfront, Volt is $269 with about $3,000 upfront.

May 29th I have an appointment to test drive the BMW i3. Looking forward to that day. Local Cadillac dealer informed me that GM has an introductory lease available for the ELR. $699 a month with $5,995 cap cost reduction (plus acq fee, doc fees, etc, etc). Basically a dressed up Volt at twice the price (anyone remember the Cimarron).

achie_b, your reactions to the car are similar to mine, although I've always bought my vehicles and wouldn't subject myself to a monthly lease payment.

I stopped by the MBZ/Smart dealer yesterday as my wife had seen a couple of B-Class Electric Drives beside her (she was in the i-MiEV and they ignored her) and I was curious if they were available for a test drive. Answers: car not available until the end of the year from one salesperson; yes available to dealers in July from a different salesperson. They couldn't give me any details on drive modes - some of the reviews have touted this.

I had to smile at your comments about paddle-regen (which I consider a most-attractive feature) on the Smart ED as I again specifically asked the Smart sales manager about paddle availability and he emphatically told me it was not available in the US! (bs)

If there was no i-MiEV, the Smart ED would have been on my shopping list a couple of years ago; however, without any Quick Charge and negligible aft storage, it doesn't presently fill any need for me as my Lithiumized Sparrows are my primary conveyance (the i-MiEV is my wife's).

Would you believe the Cadillac ELR has paddle control over regen?! Instead of being an on/off or progressive regen control, I'm told that it is time-dependent: the longer you hold it in, the stronger the regen becomes. Interesting, and I have yet to drive one to try it out.

archie_b, I'll be curious what your reaction will be to the BMW i3.

Still have not seen one ad for the 2014 i-MiEV!

I've never driven either version of the Smart. The wheelbase seems scary short to me . . . . anyone care to comment on how stable the car is at higher speeds? It may not be, but it seems like it might be a bit 'twitchy' at speeds over 50 or so? One of the things I really like about the iMiEV is how long the wheelbase is for such a short car. At over 100 inches, the iMiEV wheelbase is longer than the Honda Fit and more than 2 feet longer than the Smart ED

Like Joe, I just don't see how a 2 passenger car with next to no cargo area would fit any of our needs. As it is, one reason we have to occasionally get the gasser out of the garage is when we need room for a 5th passenger, or when we need to haul something that won't fit in the iMiEV. With a Smart, our gas consumption would go way up from what it is now

Don

I had a 2008 Smart Passion for three years and drove it most anywhere. Crosswinds were a problem initially on the expressway. Main reason for this is the flat rear end of the Smart and the very short wheelbase.

I researched possible solutions and settled on a device called Airtabs (airtab.com) Car was black and Airtabs were black so I added a row of 8 across the roof of the Smart just forward of the rear hatch. Made a noticeable difference in keeping the car stable at higher speed, especially in crosswinds. Also had a small, about .5-1.0mpg, improvement in highway fuel economy. Blended in well with the black roof and most people didn't comment unless I pointed them out.

My kids are grown and married so there is just the wife and I for 90% of our car trips. If we would need 4 or 5 passenger capacity our second 4 door car would be used. As for purchasing versus leasing, leasing works well for us. We drive our EV about 8-10K each year so a 3 year 30,000 mile lease works well. Main reason for this is both my wife and I are retired and no longer need a car for too and from work. Most of our trips are local, less than 40 miles. Rare is a trip over 150 miles round trip.

Other thing I like about leasing is the car is always under warranty. No out of pocket repairs, a fixed (lower than buying) cost per month, and very limited maintenance costs. I also find that after three years technology has also progressed to the point that being able to turn in the leased car and select from the new models is great. If the mileage limitations work for you, consider that if a person had leased a 2012 i-Miev at $99 a month for 3 years the cost of ownership would be about $3,600 (I did not include taxes as you would have them either way, nor did I include any up front money which could add 1-3K to the cost of the lease). Worse case a lease would cost $6,600 for 3 years. How much is a two year old i-Miev worth today versus what was paid for it?

As I said, leasing works for me because of my low annual mileage requirements. It is not the best choice for many individuals. Hopefully Mitsubishi will have lease rates available starting in June, or July, maybe August, hopefully by September. My previous experiences with information from Mitsubishi dealers might have slipped out in that last sentence.

archie_b said:

I researched possible solutions and settled on a device called Airtabs (airtab.com) Car was black and Airtabs were black so I added a row of 8 across the roof of the Smart just forward of the rear hatch. Made a noticeable difference in keeping the car stable at higher speed, especially in crosswinds. Also had a small, about .5-1.0mpg, improvement in highway fuel economy. Blended in well with the black roof and most people didn't comment unless I pointed them out.

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Would airtabs help slightly extend the range of our imievs?

Olagon:

If you drive your i-Miev mostly at freeway speeds it would. At speeds below 40-45 mph there would be virtually no effect on mpg or range.

It would cost about $30 to try Airtabs on an i-Miev. Come in black or white and use adhesive to install. In the photo gallery on the airtab.com web site are pictures of a Smart with Airtabs installed. This would be how an i-Miev install would look.

The main function of a smart car is...parking it. It's a local run around town buggy that you can park almost anywhere. Very popular in NYC. I can't imagine anyone would want to drive one of these on a highway at 60 mph...can be done, but why?

I see a lot of Smarts on the highway. Last fall, one went past me on the highway doing almost 80 mph. I don't think I'd take one on the highway myself. The i-MiEV's wheelbase is almost too short for the highway.

I'd go for the airtabs just for crosswind stability. I got hit with a gust of wind on the highway a few months ago that took me halfway out of my lane and activated the ASC.

fjpod said:

The main function of a smart car is...parking it. It's a local run around town buggy that you can park almost anywhere. Very popular in NYC. I can't imagine anyone would want to drive one of these on a highway at 60 mph...can be done, but why?

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fjpod, don't forget all the naysayers who make the same comment about our i-MiEV. I was quite comfortable driving the Smart ED on the freeway at, ahem, well over the posted speed limit while keeping up with traffic. Yes, it has a short wheelbase, but MBZ(?) did a great job with the suspension and the car is very controllable at speed. Same for our i-MiEV, as one does not dawdle in rush-hour traffic in the HOV lane, and I consider our i-MiEV just fine. A lot depends on the roadway construction and the period of any undulations in the road surface.

Regarding AirTabs and vortex generators, we've had quite a few postings about these in the past; here are some of them:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1396
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2106#p2106
Photos of i-MiEV with AirTabs: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2725#p2725

I've been driving my 2014 Smart ED since November 2013.

The car is remarkably well engineered for such a small package. The battery is conditioned with both cooling and heating and the motor at 55KW in a 900Kg car is plenty, trust me. I have never enjoyed driving a car as much as this one, probably because I like a car to have a "limit" that is attainable with normal speeds. What I mean is, I used to own a Z28, and I had to drive out to the country to get any enjoyment out of a drive, as the limits of the car far exceeded the city streets. So having a small electric car with instant torque, and understeer due to narrow tires, it's very much a fun car to zip around the city in!

I agree one of the compelling advantages is the small size for a city commute appliance. Not only is it easy to park, it is also easy to squeeze into turn lanes, and it allows you to easily make it through a congested side street with ease.

I've read all about the iMiEV on this forum, and there is likely a lot of commonality with these two cars, mostly from being unique, in look and purpose, which I personally think is one of the strong points of both of these electric vehicles.

As for high speed driving, the Smart ED has a top speed of 140 km/h which it can achieve without any issue, but I agree that it's not what the car was designed for.

Rather, the advantages of the generous head room and excellent visibility due to the design of the high roof line, and being a very small car, means that cross wind stability is lacking. I would suggest that if you have a highway commute longer than 30 km, you take the car for a test drive and experience it for yourself. Personally, I have no problem with the car at highway speeds, but if I was driving highway every day, I'd spring for wider tires.

Many people commute on the highway in this car, and because the traffic on the highways is so bad here in Toronto, it is hard to maintain highway speeds anyway...

The Smart ED has a cargo area. It may not be big, but it is there.

By FAR the least expensive electric car available in Canada:

https://www2.smart.com/ca/dealers/smartcenter-toronto/en/index/sales/2014-smart-electric-offer.html

Lease example based on $99 per month for 36 months. Down payment of $0 plus dealer fees of $1,819, first month’s payment of $99 and applicable taxes due at lease inception

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That's about $1800 more discounts than I got when I purchased back in November 2013.

See my experiences buying, driving and enjoying my 2014 Smart Fortwo ED.

http://mysmartelectricdrive.blogspot.ca/