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They had already told me at the IAA that smart wants to bring the Concept # 1 presented at the IAA onto the market as soon as 2022. They were able to take most of my skepticism about the tight schedule and now I can show you how serious they mean it.

These days smart applied for a patent for the production version of the Concept # 1 and for this they also had to show pictures of the final car.

Martin from from Germany, the land of poets, thinkers and bratwurst. It was with this sense of humor that he set out to go on a 5,200 km road trip through nine countries across Europe with his smart Brabus electric drive convertible.

What he experienced on his trip and his travel recommendations can be found in this blog post.

Smart, weren't they sold to China? They don't build the fortwo anymore, the plant was sold. What are they doing now, wasn't there an SUV?

The world has changed in the last 20 years and smart is now changing too. Smart is rebuilding, reinventing itself. But what does that mean and what are the biggest hurdles now?

It was the year 2012 and my parents didn't know any better: They had ordered our first smart ED and did not order the 22 kW charger. It's expensive and you don't need it in a city car anyway. That was their though

How often have we been bothered about our wrong decision in the meantime. But that is finally over. A few weeks ago I retrofitted the 22 kW charger in our smart and I would now like to tell you how you do that and what it costs.

A few weeks ago I noticed that the clock on the on-board computer of my smartEQfortwo is exactly 2 hours behind and that I cannot change anything. I take this as an opportunity to talk about software in modern cars and what impact it has on premium vehicles. Ultimately, things come full circle and it becomes clear why smart will focus on the vehicle's operating system in the future.

Now the time had come, smart presented the latest study and thus also showed where the journey will go in the future. On Friday I was allowed to look at the study on site and ask smart my and your questions. The future is exciting and smart has big plans. The most important is now in the following article.

So yesterday evening the time had come. The smart Concept # 1 ("Concept hashtag one") was presented. A purely electric smart SUV in the B segment, which will start a new era for smart. It immediately becomes clear that smart has big plans and is striving to break with the brand's previous vehicles. Everything will be different, everything will be new, everything will be 2022 or even more futuristic.

“We’re celebrating an important milestone with the smart Concept #1, which is the forerunner of…

Daimler is working with Geely to build the next generation of smart vehicles. The first one is going be the formore called SUV, which will also realign the brand. As previously reported, it will be based on the SEA2 platform. Smart is now showing another picture of this. This time we get the top view teased.

The complete study will be presented in Munich at the end of the year.


Pure and unexpected, not just the range

As already reported, the cooperation partner Geely had already announced…

Daimler is working with Geely to build the next generation of smart vehicles. The first one is going be the formore called SUV, which will also realign the brand. As previously reported, it will be based on the SEA2 platform. Geely now provides minimum specs for it's platform, which can then also be transferred to the smart.

They promise remarkable ranges and attractive charging times. Both many times better than what this vehicle segment had to offer up till now.


More range, less charging…

Everyone is talking about the upcoming all-electric smart formore, which will be presented at the IAA in Munich. It will be built together with Geely and is intended to realign the brand. In the future, they don't just want to build small cars. They also want to build main cars and start that with an SUV.

But the idea for a smart SUV is almost as old as the brand itself. Smart was at the topic as early as 2004 and developed the smart formore at full speed. During my research on the subject,…

Smart seems to be slowly teasing how the smart SUV Concepts is going to look like. The brand is going to present it at the IAA 2021 in Munich.

Together with Geely, smart wants to deliver the first vehicles to customers in 2022. A tight schedule, which is why the first binding decisions have to be made now. In addition, the brand must try to take their fan base with them.


A study as a preview of what is to come

A total of 3 pictures are being teased now: A sketch, a darkened view of the…

Some readers asked for it and now the time has finally come: With the support of EQpassion, Steinbauer developed a tuningkit for the smart EQ. I have been using the finished product since two weeks now and of course I would like to tell you how it handles.
Anyone who knows the 4th generation smart electric drive, knows that this little city runabout has already an incredible acceleration coming from the factory. Between 0 - 50 km/h, it's faster than almost everything that everyday life has to…

The smartEQfortwo as a snow clearing and street gritting vehicle. What sounds strange at first is actually regularly used by various snow plowing services in Germany. It all started back in 2010, when snow was still moved with a conventional combustion engine smart cars.
Since winter 2020/21, all-electric smartEQfortwo have also been equipped with snow plows. There are also rear gritters to make the smart plow truck complete. Everything is Made in Germany and also has full street approval.
In…

2020 smart became the world's first conventional manufacturer to convert to an electric car brand. The brand had already discontinued the diesel at the end of 2014 and now also the gas engine. This means that smart is now on par with Tesla.
As we fans have already noticed, the change takes it's time, there is no immediate success. But the joint venture with Geely should change that soon.

It took Tesla many years before they had any success to show off. At smart things should go a little…

The smart ED3 accelerates already very well from the factory, but it gets even better with the 95 PS Tuning from the Brabus. This also brings the Brabus Sport mode. Since the smart ED3 and the smart Brabus ED3 got the same powertrain, the tuning can be easily performed via a software update. With the Brabus Tuning, your smart ED3 also drives 5 km / h faster.

In this blog post you will learn how to get the Brabus software in your smart ED3.

It is particularly pleasant that the Brabus software…

Who followed EQpassion already for a while, knows that I drive a lot and maybe already heard about my 200,000 km old smart ED3. I have been driving the newer model since 2018 and have already covered over 50,000 km in the first 12 months, due to Corona the next 50,000 km then took 16 months.

Now my little smartEQfortwo, as the first in the world, has now reached the 100,000 km:
What did it experience during this time?
How is the battery doing?
What were the scheduled services and where any…

The battery of the smart ED3 very reliable and robust, however, it still can fail some times. In the following I would like to list everything that is available and how to repair or replace it:
Desiccant cartridge
Bricked from an accident
Deep discharge (P18051C)
Current sensor
Battery cells & module replacement
HV contractors

You will also find useful additional information on how to prevent these defects. Should something break, you can find suitable used parts in the Shop, there you will…

The Deutsche Accumotive GmbH & Co. KG has set a major milestone with the E18-1. With the first made in Germany battery cells that where used in a series production vehicle, they build a battery pack, that's truly developed and made in Germany. For 2012, it's performance date is impressive:
Continuous output: 42 kW (2.4 C)
Peak power: 63 kW (3.5 C)
Energy content: 17.6 kWh
Nominal voltage: 400 V
Weight: 175 kg

The battery pack can be cooled and also heated via a fluid based thermal management.…

The 3rd generation smart electric drive is a very robust car. Usually it reaches 200,000 km without any noteworthy problems, neither it's high-voltage technology nor general.
For workshops, there is hardly anything to do that they are not familiar with from normal cars already. The high-voltage technology is practically maintenance-free and things like brakes, steering and suspension are nothing new for them. With this blog post I want to take away the fear from the independent workshops of…

Anyone who knows the 3rd generation smart electric drive, knows that this little city runabout has already an incredible acceleration coming from the factory. Between 0 - 50 km / h, it's faster than almost everything that everyday life has to offer. And that despite the fact that it's performance is always limited. The built-in electric motor from EM-motive GmbH can achieve a full 80kW, but is limited to 55kW in the smart (60 kW for Brabus).

There are two versions of the tuning kit:
More…