Whichever #5 you pick, you won’t be short of performance. We have previously tested the entry-level Pro and the Brabus. The former still delivers 335bhp to the rear axle for 0-62mph in a more than satisfactory 6.9sec. The latter’s nausea-inducing, Lamborghini Urus-baiting 637bhp is little more than a gimmick you will try once, before realising that no family car needs to be that accelerative.
We have now performance tested the Premium, which has slightly more power than the Pro, mainly to compensate for the additional weight of its bigger battery. Despite damp conditions, it beat its claimed 6.5sec 0-62mph time, regardless of its state of charge. That 6.3sec time is very slightly slower than the long-range Tesla Model Y. The Smart maintains its acceleration even at high speeds, and it’s slightly quicker than the Tesla to 120mph. It’s undoubtedly helped in this pursuit by its shorter rear-axle ratio (11.0:1 versus 9.1:1), a design choice that may come to haunt it when we get to discussing running costs.
Much like other cars on the SEA platform, however, the Smart #5 suffers from iffy drivability. There is always a delay to the response of the accelerator pedal, both when accelerating and when using off-throttle regen. This means your right foot is chasing a moving target, making it difficult to be smooth. You often press the pedal too hard because the car isn’t accelerating the way you expect, then have to back off as it catches up.
The same effect happens in reverse with the regen, which can’t be turned off completely. This is a problem we also found with the Geely EX5, even if it isn’t as severe with the Smart, particularly if you select the low regen and Eco drive modes. There is a one-pedal mode, dubbed S-Pedal, which brings the car to a complete stop, but because it is so hard to be smooth with it, it’s next to unusable. The deceleration it delivers is also relatively weak.
The brake pedal is actually nicely progressive, and the emergency stopping distances we recorded are quite good. Our ‘dry’ stopping distances were recorded on a damp surface, but a fully wet stopping distance of 53.4m from 70mph is very good. For comparison, the BMW i4 needed 58.2m. This is also in spite of the test car wearing mismatched tyres. We presume it suffered a puncture before our loan and its front Continental EcoContact 7 tyres were replaced with EcoContact 6Q MO.
Acceleration
Test conditions 9deg C, dampStanding quarter mile 14.2sec at 108.9mph Standing km 25.2sec at 125.8mph 30-70mph 4.3sec 50-80mph 3.5sec 0-62mph 6.3sec
Tesla Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive (2025, 22deg C, dry)Standing quarter mile 14.2sec at 103.6mph Standing km 25.5sec at 126.1mph 30-70mph 4.3sec 50-80mph 4.0sec 0-62mph 5.9sec