2013 Smart Electric Drive Test: Lowest-Priced Electric Car In U.S.2013 Smart Electric Drive Test: Lowest-Priced Electric Car In U.S.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Smart took that advice to heart; its 2013 Smart ED3 is the third generation of its all-electric version of the two-seat ForTwo minicar.
And it’s the first one that’s really a viable car under normal driving conditions.
It’s also the least expensive electric car sold in the U.S., priced at $25,750 for the coupe and $28,750 for the soft-top Cabrio version.
And that’s before incentives (Smart asserted it will not use “net pricing” to market the car) that include a $7,500 Federal tax credit, a $2,500 purchase rebate in California, and a slew of other state, regional, and local incentives.
The price is exactly twice that of the gasoline Coupe, which starts at $12,490. Total incentives in a few California regions can bring their effective prices close to parity.
Unlike the previous Smart Electric Drive, which was lease-only, the 2013 model can be leased or sold.
Urban street fighter?
During our drive of the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive (better known as ED3)  through the congested streets and avenues of Brooklyn, New York, it proved a worthy urban warrior.
The Smart car has never been a particularly good highway car, but we had no chance to take it above 45 mph (which is above New York City’s speed limit on surface streets anyway). Maximum speed is limited to 78 mph.
But with notably better 0-to-60-mph acceleration (11.5 seconds) than the gasoline Smart, the electric ED3 can become a little street fighter if you use it hard.
“Drive it like you stole it” turns into “Drive it like a yellow cab.” That’s just what we did–nipping into small gaps, zipping around slow-moving minivans, and hustling into side lanes other cars weren’t sure of.
So if you’re looking for the best car in a crowded city–especially if you sometimes park on the street–this may be the one.
No EPA range rating yet
But make sure you have a place to park overnight with an electric-car charging station. Because driving the ED3 aggressively chews through battery capacity, meaning range, at a fast rate.
2013 Smart Electric Drive, Brooklyn, NY
It took us more than an hour to cover the 11-mile Brooklyn test route. As noted, we drove aggressively. It’s New York.
Over that time, the ED3’s dash display informed us, we averaged 2.1 miles per kilowatt-hour of battery (a useful metric of efficiency we wish more electric-car makers offered).
With a 17.6-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, at that rate, the Smart ED3 would offer about 35 miles of range.
That’s considerably lower than the 90 miles of effective range that Smart USA quotes, though the ED3 has not yet been rated for range by the EPA.
We suspect the EPA will rate the latest electric Smart at 60 to 75 miles of range, slightly better than its nearest electric-car competitor, the Mitsubishi i (or i-MiEV) at 62 miles.
To be fair, if any electric car were driven like a NYC taxi, its range would likely only be half of the EPA range, since maximum power and braking beyond the regenerative limit both sap energy.
So we’d have expected the same results from a Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric, or Mitsubishi i-MiEV. And we look forward to testing the Smart ED3 for a longer period over a more varied set of routes.
2013 Smart Electric Drive, Brooklyn, NY
Same interior space
The Smart’s length of 106 inches makes it the shortest car sold in the U.S., but as noted in most road tests, it’s quite spacious for two full-sized adults.
Due to the Smart’s “sandwich floor” construction, the battery pack fits under the floor into the space the gas tank used to occupy, and the electric motor driving the rear wheels sits exactly where the engine and transmission did.
That means interior volume for passengers and cargo is unchanged between gasoline and electric versions–making the choice of powertrain a fairer tradeoff than in many hybrids and other plug-ins, which lose luggage space to their larger battery packs.
Inside and outside
As in the gasoline Smart, there’s little storage space in the cabin: two door bins, a glovebox so small it wouldn’t hold a CD jewel case, and a small tray to the left of the steering column.
The two round gauge pods sitting atop the dash hold the battery state-of-charge and the motor regeneration/power delivery gauges.

2013 Smart Electric Drive, Brooklyn, NY
The cabin is simple but well executed. The painted metal floor edge that’s visible at the bottom of the door openings actually added a touch of color (many Smarts have different body panels of a different color to their safety cage).
In addition to its Tridion safety cell, Smart coupes have eight airbags and the soft-top Cabrio model comes with six.
On the outside, except for “electric drive” chrome letters on the liftback and a vinyl “ED” plug-and-socket logo on each pillar, the electric Smart is identical to its gasoline counterpart.
All options, colors, and customization options on the gas car can be ordered on the electric model. But Smart USA couldn’t give details on the available options that the electric version will offer.
Nicer than gas version
The best thing about this latest electric version is that it eliminates the most annoying feature of the gasoline Smart: the pitching and jerkiness produced as its semi-automatic gearbox cycles up and down through the gears.
With a single-speed drive, the Smart ED3 simply gathers speed steadily, accompanied by a slight spaceship whine. Smart has programmed in some light idle-creep, just as an automatic transmission provides.
Compared to the earlier ForTwo Electric Drive model, the ED3 has a more powerful motor and a battery pack–no longer designed by Tesla Motors–that is much more tolerant of cold weather.
The electric motor powering the rear wheels produces 35 kilowatts (47 horsepower) of continuous power, and a peak output of 55 kW (74 hp). Maximum torque is an even 100 lb-ft.
That compares to the previous model’s 20 kW (27 hp) sustained and 30 kW (40 hp) peak output, with 89 lb-ft of torque.
Power delivery is smooth, and the blending between regenerative and friction braking is indiscernible–not always the case in some hybrid cars, for instance.
Accelerator “boost” function
Drivers can call on the peak power via a “boost function” that’s discernible as a sort of extra detent at the bottom of accelerator travel.
Floor the pedal, then push again, and the motor increases its output to the maximum for up to 2 minutes, before it backs off to prevent overheating.
Lift up, and regenerative braking kicks in–though regen on liftoff can be eliminated by using the “-” mode of the optional paddle shifters, while the “+” mode increases the regeneration to bring the car close to Tesla Roadster-style “one-pedal driving.”
2013 Smart Electric Drive, Brooklyn, NY
Driving heavy
The controls feel much heavier than its size would indicate; drivers have to push hard on the accelerator and brake pedal, and the electric steering is on the heavy side compared to other small cars.
The liquid-cooled battery pack adds about 330 pounds to the weight of the standard Smart ForTwo, so it’s hardly a light car.
But despite the high seating position–you’re actually sitting higher than drivers of low compacts like Honda Civics–the weight is as low in the car as it can be.
That means the Smart ED3 handles well, corners decently, and soaks up bumps, manhole covers, cobblestone streets, gaps, crevaces, and misaligned concrete slabs with relative aplomb.
7-hour recharge
Smart recommends that owners purchase a 240-Volt Level 2 charging station, which will recharge an entirely depleted battery in 6 to 7 hours via a 3.3-kW onboard charger.
Charging the pack from 20 to 80 percent capacity, however, takes only 3.5 hours. No fast-charging option is offered on ED3s sold in the U.S.
The electric Smart also comes with a 110-Volt charging cord in the load bay, but the company stresses that it’s for emergencies only and that charging time will be twice as long–or higher.
In the end, the new Smart ED3 seems like what the Smart always wanted to be from its 1998 launch in Europe: a smooth, comfortable urban car that can be parked in smaller spaces than any other vehicle.
Unlike the first two generations of electric Smarts, it has enough power to hold its own in urban car jousting.
While the boost function hardly catapults the car toward the landscape, it gives drivers surprisingly quick getaway ability–with a driving experience that’s both faster and significantly more pleasant than the gasoline Smart.
If we had a place to charge one overnight, this might be the sleeper urban car we could live with.
But we’ll wait to make that judgment until we know more after a real road test, because despite what the hipsters tell you, 11 miles through Brooklyn isn’t representative of the way most people will use this car.
The 2013 Smart Electric Drive ED3 will be available six to eight months from now at the nation’s 89 Smart dealerships, all now associated with Mercedes-Benz dealers.
+++++++++++
Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter.

View original article at : “https://www.greencarreports.com//news/1079596_2013-smart-electric-drive-test-lowest-priced-electric-car-in-u-s”