FIRST DRIVES
SMART #3
NEW CARS TESTED AND RATED
Undercooked #1 electric crossover introduced the brand reimagined under Geely. Now for the larger, coupé-styled one
TESTED 28.11.23, MALLORCA, SPAIN ON SALE SPRING 2024 PRICE £39,950
Handsome though it may be, the Smart #3 is a car that makes people wonder just what its reimagined maker is really all about.
If you’d have asked me a few hours ago, while I was still at the wheel, I’d have been none the wiser. But now, with the benefit of a little detached perspective, it’s becoming clearer what direction ‘the new Smart’ – the brand as refounded in 2019 and co-funded by Mercedes-Benz and Chinese giant Geely – is headed off in.
Clearly, this is no longer the maker of innovative microcars that it once was. Still, if you were on a mission to show the world that you’re the same fearless old purveyor of arguably the most bold and singular small car of the last half century, this just isn’t what you’d do.
We might let them off the decision to kick-start the revival of the brand with an electric compact crossover, the #1. Sooner or later, they will need to sell some cars, after all. But to move next to a larger, lower, more expensive and more desirable mid-sized coupé-crossover like the #3 – a rival for anything from the Polestar 2 to the Volvo C40 Recharge, the Tesla Model 3 and even the Cupra Born – hardly says ‘I’m innovative’, does it? It hardly says ‘pick me, I’m different’. Right now, where mid-sized EVs are concerned, I’m not sure that we even know what different looks like – but this certainly isn’t it.