New Smart #5 Coming Soon: Specs, price and release info

Smart has certainly been around the block in terms of partnerships with other brands, starting out as a Mercedes offshoot before hooking up with Mitsubishi, then Renault and now Chinese megabrand Geely. With Mercedes once again onboard as a design partner. Confused? We wouldn’t blame you, given in that time it’s gone from its signature microcars through miniature sports cars to city hatchbacks and now a range of electric SUVs and crossovers, of which this #5 is the … third following the #1 and #3. Which is only slightly less numerically confusing than fellow Geely brand Polestar and its chronological model naming.
• #5 sees Smart aiming big, literally, with a full-size electric SUV aiming at the heart of a hugely competitive sector packed with talented players • Chunky styling includes signature frameless doors and ‘halo’ panoramic roof, plus ladders and roof rack for the top model, because lifestyle • There will be two battery options, confusingly based around different technologies; bigger of the two is a 100kWh unit offering a claimed 336 miles • No power outputs yet but Smart says the all-wheel drive versions with the bigger battery will hit 0-62mph in less than five seconds • All-wheel drive Pulse and Summit Editions promise genuine off-road ability, the latter wearing that on its sleeve with its Land Rover Defender style accessorising • Pricing to be confirmed closer to the on-sale date, the #5 expected to arrive in the UK towards the back end of the year

It’s early days but Smart has already confirmed a line-up going from entry-level Pro with the smaller battery to Pro+, Pulse and Summit Edition. All of which sound like products you might buy from a pub toilet vending machine but are, in fact, more luxuriously equipped versions of the Pro with the bigger battery and more kit. The latter two will have a twin motor set-up with extra off-road driving modes tailored to mud, snow, sand and rock perfect for finding those off-road diversions around the traffic hotspots on the morning commute.

With a long wheelbase to free up space for occupants the Smart #5 promises lots of interior and also lots of tech. Suffice to say, if screens in cars make your teeth itch this probably isn’t the car for you, Smart promising a 25.6-inch augmented reality head-up display (HUD) projecting information onto the windscreen and three (count ’em) OLED screens for the driver’s instrument cluster, central display and an additional one for the passenger. The software powering these and the car’s many and various safety tech is said to be a big step up from that in existing Smarts, which is a good thing given we’ve previously found the interface somewhat fiddly and the driver aids rather intrusive. And it wouldn’t be a Smart without a cutesy animated assistant, this latest one going by the name of Leo. Hi Leo!

We’ll spare you the chemistry lesson on how the different batteries work and sum up as saying they go from ‘big’ to ‘bigger’, the 100kWh one in the fancier models considerably burlier than those used in most equivalent mid-size electric SUVs. Which makes the claimed 336-mile official range for those models sound somewhat pessimistic, though we’ll wait to see if others in the range can do better. If you can find a public charger powerful enough it will at least replenish that battery faster than most, with charging speeds of up to 400kW. Which, for those not yet fluent in electric car speak, is very fast indeed.

No price details yet but Smart is saying the car will be in the UK before the end of 2025, so expect more on this as we get closer to that date.

With Geely’s backing and technology transfer between other brands within the family like Polestar, Volvo, Lotus and others Smart has the resources to add more cars to the range in short order. With the #5 that makes three new models in as many years, and we don’t expect that pace to let up.

This mid-size electric SUV sector is one of the hardest fought in the industry at the moment, with new models coming thick and fast from both ‘legacy’ brands and newcomers from China alike. If you’re in the market, have around £50,000 to spend (or the equivalent in monthly payments) the choice is already pretty bewildering, and doesn’t look any easier to navigate with the arrival of the #5 and others like it.