T
ELECTRIC CARS
Buy from £17,695 (with PiCG) Lease from £239/month / smart.com
SMART EQ FORTWO
he Smart Car has always come
alive in busy city environments,
and its new electric powertrain
feels like the most fitting to date. In years
gone by, you could have poured scorn on
the Smart for its terrible ride quality, clunky
automatic gears and useless infotainment
system, but all that has changed.
Thankfully, the latest generation hasn’t
shied away from everything that made
this teeny city car so loveable in the first
place – not least the blunt rear end, which
is great for parking in tight spaces, and
comically flared wheel arches. On top of
this, the ‘tridion’ safety cell remains an
integral part of its design and is one of
the most impressively robust pieces of
engineering seen in a car.
But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty,
because the 7.6kWh battery and 60kW
rear-drive electric motor deliver around
79bhp, which is enough to see the EQ
ForTwo run out of steam at around
80mph. But you’ll never have to trouble
the top speed, because this is a car that
very much loves to zip around congested
city streets and will do so for around 100
miles before the batteries run flat.YOU’RE ALL TORQUE
Thanks to a single fixed-gear ratio, the
burn away from traffic lights is comically
fast. In fact, the full 160Nm of torque is
available from a standstill, which sees
the sprint to 30mph completed in less
than 4 seconds. Plus, the new suspension
setup feels more nimble than ever. Yup, it
still jiggles and wiggles over big bumps in
the road, but it doesn’t feel quite as eager
to fall over as it used to.
Inside the more lavishly appointed
models you’ll find a 7in colour touchscreen
infotainment display, while an 8.9cm TFT
screen replaces the monochrome tripKEY SPECS
ORange Up to 98 miles
OPower 60kW (79bhp)
O0-62mph 11.5 seconds
OTop speed 80mph
OInfotainment 7in touchscreencomputer if you go for more basic spec.
Charging takes as little as six hours from
a domestic socket, so you won’t need a
designated charger installed at home or
work, but that figure tumbles to 2.5 hours
if you plug it into one of the beefier units
on the UK’s charging network.
So what are the downsides? Well, that
asking price is almost on a par with larger
EVs offering a much more usable range.
Still, nothing gets close to its petite
dimensions and the sheer joy of pointing
the nose of the Smart EQ ForTwo towards
a kerb and parking in a space typically
occupied by a motorcycle (or two).RENAULT TWIZY
Buy from £6690 / Lease price n/a
/ renault.co.ukYou came for compact city cars and you
got what could easily pass for a very
spoilt child’s toy. But that would be doing
the Twizy a disservice, as this two-seat
EV offers the sort of hop-in-and-go
freedom that many other motors can
only dream of. In fact it’s classed as a
quadricycle, which plonks it somewhere
between a motorbike and a car, but that
means it represents ridiculously good value
and offers around 60 miles of range.
You will have to hire the batteries from
Renault, but the monthly contract buys a
0-30mph sprint time of barely 4 seconds
and a fun-packed driving experience.KEY SPECS O 62 miles O 13kW (17bhp)
O 0-32mph in 4.4s O 50mph
O No screensStuff says ++++,VOLKSWAGEN E-UP!
Buy from £19,615 / Lease price tbc
/ volkswagen.co.ukThe VW e-up! might sound like it was
‘thunk’ up in a Yorkshire pub, but it is in
fact the most car-like compact, erm, car
on this list, as it offers the same VW build
quality as the rest of the Teutonic range.
An electric motor delivers the equivalent
of 81bhp and 210Nm of torque – that might
not sound like much, but the feather-light
construction makes it crazily nippy.
Because it’s a VW, it rides exceptionally
well, and features all the mod cons you
would expect of a spanking new car. It’s
just a shame the range is limited to 99
miles, so you might have to plug in at
home every night.KEY SPECS O 99 miles O 60kW (80bhp)
O 0-62mph in 12.4s O 80mph
O 5in touchscreenStuff says +++,,STUFF SAYS Smart’s electric whizz-about is a champion of narrow city
streets and seemingly impossibly parking spaces ++++,