Smart EQ Forfour Review 2023

The bottom line is that the Smart EQ Forfour’s range is so limited that long journeys are out of the question - unless you like to stop every 50 miles for a coffee - so it is really a car that only works in the city. It does this well, thanks to its manoeuvrability and good low-speed acceleration, but there are rivals with more range and better comfort.

All Smart EQ Forfours come with the same electric motor and battery pack, so unfortunately there’s no options to choose here. In terms of trim levels, the entry-level Passion Advanced has much of most of the standard equipment you might want, including the Smart Media System, LED daytime running lights and the Comfort package that includes the height adjustable steering wheel and driver’s seat.

 If you want a higher-spec model, skip the Pulse Premium and go for the Prime Exclusive, which adds heated leather seats, LED headlights, ambient lighting plus automatic headlights and wipers.

Although the Renault Twingo is the sister car of the Smart EQ Forfour and is identical in many ways, Renault do not currently sell an electric version - instead they offer the Renault Zoe, a dedicated electric car. It is significantly more expensive than the ForFour, but it also offers considerably more range and more cabin space too.

Closer in terms of price and execution are the Volkswagen Group triplets - the Volkswagen e-Up, the SEAT Mii Electric and Skoda Citigo e iV - all of which offer more space, a superior driving experience and a good quality cabin. Crucially they are also relatively close in terms of price, so they make the most compelling alternative to the Smart.

The Smart brand is designed to be an offshoot of Mercedes-Benz, so while it’s not intended to be quite as posh as the premium brand, it is intended to be a cut above the riff-raff - and it’s at least partially successful in this respect.

The most obvious example is the dashboard, which is quite different to the usual slab of grey plastic you get in small cars. Even if you go for a basic version in Passion trim, it feels at least a little bit special. There is a good mix of materials and finishes, like gloss black details contrasting with the fabric covering on the dashboard - small things that do make a difference. 

It’s not all good news unfortunately, as some penny-pinching has taken place in terms of the quality of some of materials. That’s true for every other car in this sector, but this also reflects that the Smart EQ Forfour isn’t a totally premium car. 

Smart’s relationship with Renault is also evident (the Smart ForFour and Renault Twingo are sister cars) with the occasional item of Renault switchgear dotted around the cabin. The ForFour has also become more conservative in its old age, with less choice in terms of adding colour to the cabin than on earlier models.

Unlike older versions of the ForFour, the Smart EQ Forfour model benefits from a single specification infotainment as standard across the range, which means you don’t have to decide which version to choose or pay extra for the privilege.

As standard the Smart EQ Forfour gets the Smart Media System, which is made up of a 7-inch touchscreen, TomTom navigation including live services such as traffic reporting, Android Auto and Mirror Link and a DAB tuner.

At present, the system doesn’t offer Apple CarPlay, although Smart says it will be offered later on in the vehicle’s lifetime, so it would be worth checking with your friendly dealer if this is going to be a dealbreaker.

The system works pretty well, responding to the inputs of the driver accurately and the graphics are simple and easy to read. You can also use the steering wheel controls to operate certain functions. It is worth noting that this system has been in use for a while, so it’s not the freshest, but it should provide enough to meet the needs of most buyers. You also get three years’ subscription to the TomTom Live services, but it will require a subscription outside of that period.

The big difference between the Smart EQ Forfour (and ForTwo) and its rivals is the rear-engine, rear-drive arrangement. The theory goes that by putting all the major mechanical components way out back, it means you can have a shorter bonnet and free up more space inside the car for people and luggage, whilst still keeping the overall dimensions as short as possible - saving space on the road.

The total amount of room in here may not be earth-shattering, but it does manage to achieve the goal of maximising the ForFour’s footprint. Front seat occupants still get the best deal of course, with plenty of legroom available even for taller passengers, while the headroom is also impressive, but there’s still enough space to accommodate two adults in reasonable comfort. 

It’s a shame that the front seats, in particular the driver’s seat, are set so high, as this can leave taller drivers feeling wedged under the dashboard despite the actual legroom on offer. 

Getting into the back is helped in part by the fact that the rear doors open to almost 90 degrees, although the actual size of the aperture and the amount of space in the footwell isn’t any better as a result.

Less impressive is the amount of boot space available with the Smart EQ Forfour, which is a miserly 185 litres - less even than the smaller ForTwo. You can tilt the rear-seat backrest to 90 degrees to increase the space to 219 litres, but that makes them uninhabitable to all but the generous. 

However, you can fold the rear seats to give you 975 litres of space in total, and even fold the front passenger seat forward to swallow loads of up to 2.3m in length. Some space is also taken up by the charging cables, which you’d be mad to leave home without.

Anyone hoping for a second ‘boot’ up front will be disappointed; the space is taken up with a crash structure and can’t be filled with your stuff. Storage space in the cabin is acceptable but not amazing, with a modest glovebox and two cupholders. 

There’s just the single motor and battery pack option for the Smart EQ Forfour, again shared with the smaller ForTwo version. As standard, you get an 82PS electric motor that drives the rear wheels through an automatic gearbox (there’s no manual option), and power is provided to the motor by a 17.6kWh battery mounted low down in the centre of the car.

Like most electric cars, the motor provides strong torque - 160Nm - from zero revs, giving it the kind of lively acceleration that you want in city driving. There’s no need to shift gears either, you just squeeze the accelerator and enjoy the ability to keep up with traffic. 

It doesn’t translate to good performance at all speeds though. Get up to higher speeds on main roads and there’s less go available. Get out onto the motorway and the EQ really begins to struggle. It’s capable of 81mph, but it will take you a while to get there and it will have some difficulty maintaining that speed up hills.

Like most other electric cars the Smart EQ Forfour also feeds energy back into the battery when you come off the accelerator through regeneration. You can modulate this a little by pressing the brake pedal, but sometimes it is hard to be smooth and avoid grabbing the actual brakes, which can be irritating in busy traffic.

One of the main benefits of switching to electric power with a pre-existing car is that you instantly get a reduction in noise levels and an increase in refinement. This is partially true for the Smart EQ Forfour compared to the standard ForFour, not least because the petrol engine is quite a vocal one, but it is far from a complete success.

At lower speeds noise levels are commendably low. Accelerate away and all you get is a faint whine from the powertrain which is not nearly loud enough to be irritating, and the lack of noise is a plus point when in traffic - it’s much easier to then hear what’s going on around you. 

However, it’s much less impressive as the speeds increase. The powertrain remains relatively quiet, but the basic noise levels of the ForTwo itself are shown into sharp relief. Tyre noise starts to kick up at higher speeds alongside an increase in wind noise - even more so on the Cabriolet model - so that all the benefit of the electric powertrain is effectively lost.

EuroNCAP tested the Smart ForFour when it was first launched in 2014, and it scored a strong four-star result overall. It scored 78 per cent for adult protection and 77 per cent for child protection, and no doubt helped by the rear engine configuration it achieved 65 per cent for pedestrian mitigation. EuroNCAP also awarded the ForFour 56 per cent for safety assist.

As standard, all ForFour models are fitted with ESC, front, side and curtain airbags as well as seat-belt pre-tensioners in the front seats only. A speed limiter is also fitted to all models, which is a useful safety feature even if it requires the driver to resist the temptation to turn it off, and hill start assist is also standard across the range.

One benefit of the Smart EQ Forfour compared to the standard car is that, on new models at least, automatic emergency braking is fitted as standard on all versions, a very useful safety feature particularly for a car that will spend most of its time in town and in traffic.

All versions of the Smart EQ Forfour are fitted with a tyre inflation kit as standard, while a space saver or full-size spare is not an option, which for some buyers may be something of a sticking point. The main issue is that there is nowhere for the extra wheel to go, as the space under the boot floor is taken by the engine.

Usually the first question that gets asked of an electric car, the range is a crucial factor and on this front the Smart EQ Forfour is somewhat disappointing. The 17.6kWh battery is considerably smaller than rival offerings - the SEAT Mii for example has a battery with almost twice the capacity - and this restricts the range severely.

Official figures give the Smart EQ Forfour a range of 80.7 miles under the stricter WLTP rules. That gives it an effective real-world range of 70 miles at most, and considerably less in adverse weather conditions. That means the EQ is not a realistic prospect for longer-distance travel.

The Smart EQ Forfour falls into a relatively narrow range of groups depending on the trim level and the age of the vehicle. All brand-new ForFour EQs fall into group 11 regardless of the specification, whereas older versions are split between groups 9 and 10, with the Passion Advanced trim falling into the former category.

Because there’s little difference between the versions and ages, there’s not a great deal of money to be saved on your premium by choosing one or the other, although a newer version with automatic emergency braking is a sensible upgrade.

Happily the current rules on VED mean that zero emission cars pay zero road tax, so the whole of the Smart EQ Forfour range will cost you zero pounds a year. That may change of course, but as we are being encouraged to switch to EVs this is unlikely to change significantly for a while yet.

Also, the ForFour is sufficiently cheap that there’s no chance of it costing over £40,000 when new - a figure that attracts a VED penalty in the first year from the government even if it is a zero-emission electric car.

That said, a quick search of the HeyCar classifieds turned up several examples over a wide price range. There was a good selection of 2020 examples available, some with delivery mileage. We found a 2020 car in Prime Exclusive specification with less than 500 miles on the clock for £18,000.

As for older cars, 2018 examples are down around the £14,000 mark, which is a useful saving over a newer car. We found a 2014 example with still less than 3,000 miles on the clock, in Prime Premium spec for £13,500, but given the relatively short supply it pays to shop around.