The smart #1 Brabus is one of the most powerful cars legally allowed on Irish roads. The Chinese smart brand with the unusual logo arrived here in early 2024. The first car to arrive was the smart #1 offered in Pro, Pro+, Premium and the top Brabus grade, the latter aimed at thrill seekers or those who simply like to drive a fast car - responsibly it's hoped.
Brabus is a renowned German automotive company founded in 1977 that specialises in tuning Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Mercedes and Chinese giant Geely are involved in the new ‘smart’ car electric range distributed in Ireland by Motor Distributors Limited.
I had previously driven the Premium Grade version with a single motor with a range of 440km, 272hp, 384 Nm of torque and a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 seconds. I had not driven the Brabus performance car - until recently.
This is a mean looking hot hatch that comes with its own distinctive styling inside and out; black exterior, red roof and side mirrors, as well as red strips along the front and sides, and Brabus badge. Rimless windows and flush door handles that pop out when you approach and sporty 19-inch alloys all add to the sporty look. The upmarket interior is more spacious than it appears from the outside, is very well designed and finished in top materials and trims. The panoramic sunroof allows lots of light into the cabin. There’s no On/Off button, you just put the car in gear and off you go. This is quite a high car so you have a good view out. Seats come with patterned dark microfibre upholstery and contrasting red stitching repeated on the dash top, steering wheel and doors; headrests also get the red treatment; even seat belts are a bright red. Both front seats have 6-way power adjustments including lumbar support; the driver’s has a seat memory setting.
The main feature is the stand alone bright 12.8-inch central display with its weird and fascinating graphics, and which controls most of the car’s features. A cute cheetah avatar that sits, stands and stretches at the bottom of the screen is quite distracting for the driver. However, I had to go through the screen to adjust the side mirrors and then use up and down arrows on the steering wheel to get the angles I needed. The screen even controls the sunroof blind, the excellent 10-inch Head Up Display and the regenerative braking for Low, Medium or High or your choice of power steering. Thankfully, there are shortcuts for the dual zone climate controls and front seat heaters along the bottom of the screen.
The equally bright but very narrow 9.2-inch digital instrument cluster also gets the weird graphics, and shows the range left in the battery. Huge front door bins, a decent glovebox, large front armrest with a huge area below that doubles as a cool box, a phone charger, two small USBs and a 12v power socket all feature. Rear doors open wide and there is good head and legroom helped by a flat floor. The smaller rear middle seat back lowers to reveal a hatch through to the boot. There are two more USBs here. The tailgate is power-operated. Boot space is a decent 411 litres. You can store the charging cables in the underfloor storage area, or the small 15-litre frunk.
Other features include a high quality 13-speaker Beats audio system (only in the Premium and Brabus grades), good blind spot monitors; front and rear parking sensors and excellent reversing camera.
Features include smart Pilot Assist, traffic sign recognition, front and rear cross traffic alert, lane departure system, front collision mitigation emergency brake assist. In urban areas, an acoustic alert warns pedestrians that the car is approaching. Comfort suspension is standard.
All smart #1 versions have a 66kWh battery pack. While the standard smart #1 has a single 272hp electric motor on the rear axle, Brabus gets another motor to drive the front wheels, which results in a huge 438hp, and an all-wheel-drive vehicle capable of a 0-100km/h sprint of just 3.9 secs and top speed of 180km/h. On the other hand, it can be very well behaved purring along nicely in towns and villages. Being all-electric means instant torque in this case of a whopping 584Nm available from the ‘off’ so drivers should ease up on the throttle until they become familiar with the car’s enormous power.
The entry level Pro has a range of 310kms and a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 secs. The Pro+ ups the range to 420km while the Premium adds another 20km to 440km.
Brabus has a WLTP-rated range of 400km. With the battery in my car charged to 52pc, the range available to me was 207km. The battery can be recharged from 10pc to 80pc with a 150kW DC (CCS Type 2) fast charger in under 30 minutes. I’m not sure who the smart #1 Brabus version is aimed at, but buyers will have to stump up €54,170 for the privilege of owning one. My smart #1 Brabus had a subsidised retail price of €54,170.
