Is the Smart #1 Brabus All Hype? We Put it to the TEST!

The Smart #1 is probably one of the most anticipated EVs to launch in Malaysia. Over 60% of initial bookings were for the Smart #1 Brabus which delivers 422hp and 543Nm of torque, with an insane 0-100km/h time of under 4 seconds.
The question is, is the Smart #1 fun to drive? And is this RM250K EV worthy of carrying the Brabus badge? To find out, we took the Smart #1 Brabus for a road trip from KL to Penang and here's our full review.
#Smart1 #Smart1Brabus #EV
Learn more about the Smart #1:
soyacincau.com/tag/smart-1/
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:30 - What is the Smart #1?
1:15 - Smart #1 Brabus Specs Malaysia
1:53 - Exterior Design
3:40 - Interior Design
6:23 - Boot Space
7:10 - Infotainment system
8:23 - Smart Modes
9:25 - Vital controls, instrument cluster and HUD
10:30 - Hello Smart App and EV Route Planning
12:49 - Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
13:18 - Driving Experience
16:53 - Regen Braking and e-Pedal Mode
18:27 - Real-world EV Range
20:00 - Can you trust the estimated range?
21:40 - Is the 400km claimed range a problem?
22:51 - Are there enough EV chargers?
23:26 - AC and DC charging rate
24:16 - Vehicle-to-Load (V2L)
24:28 - Final thoughts on the Smart #1 Brabus

[@JLXC90]

Depending on your needs, I was torn between Tesla M3, BMW i4 or Smart #1 Brabus too. But decided to go with Brabus due to below criteria: Pros: 1) I don’t need a car with big boot, the smaller the better due to the next car I bought is to replaced my family go to pasar car. I have other family size car for outstation drive. 2) shorter and smaller car has its advantages in the city. Easier to find parking and zoom in out much quicker. But smaller car doesn’t mean it’s cramp inside, Smart #1 is very comfortable and spacious inside. The rear seats can be folded completely or slide forward to create bigger boot space. 3) styling I prefer Smart, more quirky, fun to look at and rarer on the road. Tesla M3 is nice too but I’m sure it will be everywhere, it’s just too many on the road. 4) 3.9sec 0-100kmh is addictive and enough for me. Of course if you need more power then probably a Tesla M3P is a better choice. 5) 22kw AC charging is really convenient, I could save time and money when I’m charging outside. There are many free AC chargers around especially in the malls. Just go for a movie and I could fully charged my car from 20-100% in 2hours+. Example TRX Exchange just launched their 22kw AC chargers, the fee is time based RM0.25/minute, to fully charged a Smart is only 3 hours and RM45.00. If it’s a BYD Seal with 7kw, it’s gonna take you 15 hours to fully charged 0-100% and cost you RM225.00. 6) Smart has 70% of the chargers integrated in the car map. ChargEV, JomCharge and Gentari. By end of this year, they gonna add another 2 CPOs, ChargeSini and ParkEasy and gonna bring them up to 93% of total chargers in the country. Cons: 1) Price 2) Price 3) Price 🤣 I basically drove this Brabus from Penang-KL and vice versa with single charge, provided need to follow the highway speed limit. Nevertheless, is a really powerful, fun to drive, nimble and really good build quality interior car. Here’s my referral code if you decided to test drive or purchase the car😆happy to share more knowledge with you Referral code: OeAr79

[@daryltantan]

Do you really think Seal owners would charge their Seal at AC public chargers for 15 hours? 😅 And with that RM42k less in price, Seal owners can have many many hours of fast DC charging 😂

[@JLXC90]

@@daryltantan no la just saying, the car is overall very good but the charging speed is disappointing. Furthermore only come with single phase OBC. Have to find specific charger only can fully utilized its AC 7kw speed. Imagine the owner reached home with low battery % and gotta rush to another appointment in an hour or two (shower, cook lunch, makan maybe already took 2 hours) with 22kw basically you could almost fully charged the car and ready to go for the next outing. 42k cheaper is great, but it will be even better if the owner could save even more during its daily commute, while shopping at malls. Less downtime and more uptime, relying on DC only is painful and expensive. More expensive than using petrol. Hopefully BYD could at least upgrade to 3phase 11kw just like in Singapore, not they don’t have, they just want to cut cost😬

[@daryltantan]

@@JLXC90 Yea agree 11kw should be the minimal standard nowadays. Singapore is also getting 7kw. I think only only China and European markets are getting 11kw

[@JLXC90]

@@daryltantan oh i see, my bad. That’s the case probably south east asia all 7kw

[@alexwnl]

22kW FTW! Great for users who depend on public chargers and even better if the chargers are time based.

[@bextbox]

Real fun EV designed by Mercedes❤

[@fryke]

There's literally a setting to show the remaining distance in dynamic mode in the Energy/Charging settings.

[@alexwnl]

Was literally mentioned at 20:47

[@fryke]

@@alexwnl yep, I literally commented when he was droning on about that the car would need such a feature. I was probably typing while it was mentioned in the video, because all the words before showing that talked about how incredibly "misleading" the car was about range, which is obviously wrong. I'm guessing it was inserted later, once the mistake was noticed. Would've made the whole rant unnecessary. :)

[@faizalzaidin]

This is a Brabus variant but why limited the top speed to 180km/hr?

[@alexwnl]

Most EVs are limited to 180km/h, including Volvo and BYD. Do you need more than 180km/h? The national speed limit is 110.

[@faizalzaidin]

@@alexwnl I’m highlighting Brabus variant. Doesn’t make any sense. If the excuse of 100km/hr limit, then why people are buying Ferrari and Lamborghini?

[@evmechanic]

This has the same platform as Volvo EX30 and all Volvo now are limited to 180km/h.

[@tommyolsen8224]

SMART❤

[@WPxDominion]

The #1 has ventilated seats? Was that a recent update or is it just for certain regions?

[@alexwnl]

Yes, it does but only for Premium and Brabus version. Not available for the base Pro model.

[@WPxDominion]

I just got my Brabus this week, but no ventilated seats, at least not in the software. Maybe it's a regional thing after all :)

[@adriannathaniel4015]

The app needs a lot of work to improve.

[@maxcavalera9797]

Yeah. I downloaded their apps and see the user community complaint comments… 😳🫣 Scary so many bugs on their phone apps and even their car OS apps…

[@choboutube]

For a 16.5km commute with comfort mode, I think I'm getting close to 400km on a full charge.

[@soyacincautv]

For daily commute within the city, it is possible to exceed the advertised WLTP rating. We average about 14kWh per 100km for normal drives within KL, which should deliver 400++ km on a single charge.

[@watataenjoyer]

240k 4k mileage

[@Andre-vx5mp]

The body, the interior, the comfort are not too bad! But pray that you don't have a breakdown on the part made in China. If you have one, you will cry your eyes out. I had a sad experience!!!

[@OnnyIzwanNordin666]

My head hurts listening to his accent

[@mohamad150178]

Presenter sounds like someone from mainland China 'trying' to speak good English 😅. Peace bro!

[@daryltantan]

Not really. His English is pretty proper without overdoing any accent