Sementara itu, smart #1 BRABUS yang dilancarkan pada November 2023 dan diedarkan  secara eksklusif di Malaysia oleh PRO-NET, menewaskan pesaing-pesaing yang kuat untuk memenangi  Anugerah Electric Crossover of The Year. 

Kedua-dua pemenang anugerah mewakili perubahan ketara dalam hala tuju Proton, dengan Proton S70  sebagai sedan serba baharu pertama yang dibangunkan bersama Geely.

Manakala smart #1 yang direka oleh  Mercedes-Benz merupakan kenderaan elektrik bateri (BEV) pertama yang diperkenalkan oleh Syarikat dan  merupakan perintis kepada ketibaan lebih banyak kenderaan EV pada masa depan termasuk model pemasangan  tempatan dibawah lambang Proton. Pengiktirafan yang diperoleh dengan anugerah itu adalah bukti keberkesanan  model perniagaan baharu. 

These award-winning models signify a significant change in direction for Proton. The Proton S70 is the first all-new sedan developed in collaboration with Geely, highlighting the company’s partnership with the Chinese automaker. On the other hand, the smart #1, designed by Mercedes-Benz, marks Proton’s entry into the electric vehicle (EV) market. It is the first battery electric vehicle (BEV) introduced by Proton, paving the way for more EVs in the future, including locally assembled models bearing the Proton badge.

The recognition received with these awards validates the effectiveness of Proton’s new business model, which includes partnerships with renowned automotive companies and the introduction of innovative and competitive vehicles. These accolades underscore Proton’s commitment to delivering high-quality, technologically advanced models that meet the needs and preferences of today’s consumers.

There are models from Europe and China, with the latter having made significant inroads with models that don’t only impress with their tech but also design. 

In fact, we have had some opportunities to test drive a specific model and jumped at every chance we had. The model in topic is none other than the smart #1 (hashtag one). A collaboration between Geely and Mercedes-Benz that was launched in Malaysia by Pro-Net, a subsidiary of Proton. 

We were in love from the moment we laid eyes on it. It has a funky-looking body that caters to every audience. No matter how old you may be, when you step inside it, you will feel a lot younger. Why do we say this? Because the smart #1 has many unique features and a very youthful personality. It has an amazing sound system with speakers by Beats, a grille that lights up which definitely stands out at night, a responsive voice command system and there is an array of body colours to choose from, including an outlandish yellow. 

Apart from that, the smart #1 is also offered in a Brabus trim. Yes, the German high-performance automotive aftermarket tuning company. Besides that trim, there is the Pro and Premium variants for those who prefer to take things slow with minimal charging times. Not to say that the 286hp, 343Nm of torque Premium variant is slow, but for a more thrilling drive and heart-stopping 0-100km/h time, the 422hp, 543Nm of torque Brabus is the way to go. 

Speaking of 0-100km/h time, we had the chance to test it out at the Pinnacle Kart USJ track. The Premium did it in 6.8 seconds but the Brabus on the other hand, did it in 3.9 seconds. The instant torque and launch are the best this writer has experienced in an EV (yet). We also got to test the handling, auto park feature, and evasive manoeuvre assist. 

The handling was exceptional for the Brabus, we felt confident when tackling corners and launching out of corners thanks to its sportier suspension setting. The Premium, however, has a little oversteer to it, making it feel a little hesitant to take corners at high speeds. 

The evasive manoeuvre assist on the other hand was responsive as it gave the driver an amplified push to the steering wheel when avoiding a collision.

The auto park feature, however, was a little challenging as it takes time for the car to detect an empty parking space, but we could speed this by manually choosing a spot by dragging a green box on the touchscreen. After this, the car attempts to park autonomously in that pre-specified green box, and we must say, is pretty impressive but can be time-consuming.

It would be faster to park the car on your own. However, we understand that this feature is still being improved and will take time to make it perfect. 

Now, with all that power, what is the driving range like? The Premium has a range of 440km while the Brabus has a range of 400km. So, to test if the smart #1 is “Long Drive” worthy, we were invited to do so during a media drive from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. 

After a short briefing, the smart team announced that there would be an optional challenge and the winner would get a prize. It was an energy efficiency challenge. The team that reaches Penang with the lowest battery consumption of kWh/100km will be crowned the winner. There were two categories, one for the Premium variant and one for the Brabus variant. 

To start the journey, we were all put in teams of three and our team was given the Brabus variant. This variant was not meant to be driven slowly. So, we decided to have our little challenge instead, to see who would reach Penang the fastest, just for giggles.

Some teams made only one stop to recharge but because we were flooring it half the time, following speed limits of course, we had to charge up twice. The smart app and integrated navigation system played a huge role in this journey. It was easy to use, and it assisted us in planning routes that had charging stations. 

We of course tried our best to choose the ones with a higher kW to reduce our charging time. We made our first stop at Behrang for a quick 25-minute charge with a 75kW which brought our car from 50% to 80%. 

During the drive, we were entertained by the sound system and enjoyed the instant torque. The Brabus trim allows the driver to turn on the virtual engine sound. It was fun for a while, but it is not recommended for long drives as it gets a little annoying due to the fact that it has a constant note playing on loop, unlike the sound of an ICE engine where it changes according to the flex of the right foot.

We were messing around with the infotainment system and voice commands and learnt that if you are not tech savvy, it might take some time to figure out how things work. The infotainment system is a learning curve and as the saying goes, you learn something new every day. 

Our second stop was at Sg Perak and we managed to charge the car from 14% to 80% in 30 minutes thanks to the 180kW charger. From there on, it was a straight road to Penang. 

Now, we have also heard many people say that the battery percentage decreases when an EV is stuck in traffic and that the range might drop. We are here to deny that because we were stuck in Penang traffic, Georgetown to be exact, and we managed to reach our destination at Hotel Angsana with a remaining travel range of 111km. While we were stuck in a standstill jam, we noticed that the battery percentage and range did not reduce. The range only reduces when the car is moving. 

We were the first ones to reach the destination with a 25kWh/100km energy usage. Not exactly energy efficient, but it managed to get us there just in time to take a quick nap and head down for dinner. The team with the lowest energy usage for the Brabus category had 16kWh/100km and for the Premium category, 14kWh/100km. They however, arrived just in time for dinner. 

Before we headed back to Kuala Lumpur, we made a stop at the smart Penang showroom for lunch and the prize-giving ceremony for the winners. 

We had the Brabus for the first day, and then hopped into the Premium for the drive back. We started off with only 127km of travel range because we were sightseeing and enjoying a drive around town with the car, which meant we had to make a stop at Gantang for a charge. 

It took 25 minutes for the 50kW charger to charge up from 40% to 80%. Since there was no challenge, we decided to indulge in the performance of the Premium variant as well. The instant torque in this was not disappointing and it has more than enough power to get you from point A to point B fast. Just that the Brabus does it faster. 

With all that fun we were having, the smart system actually notified us via a voice notification, that we had to charge up. Again, with the help of the Hello smart app, we were directed to the nearest charging station which was at Petronas Ulu Bernam which had a 150kW charger. In 25 minutes, we were at 80% and it was more than enough to bring us back to Kuala Lumpur with 110km remaining when we arrived at our final destination. 

We stopped to charge the cars four times and each charging session only cost us RM70 to RM80. So, is the smart #1 a worthy car for long travelling distances? Yes, it is. The car is fun to drive, it notifies you when it needs to be charged, and it detects if the driver is fatigued, which is helpful during long drives. The Hello smart app is extremely useful for route planning, which reduces range anxiety. 

The single-motor Premium variant goes for RM219,000 and the dual-motor Brabus variant goes for RM249,000. The pricing is decent when you consider everything that you get and we understand why it is as such. For a car that was styled by Mercedes and developed by Geely, and one that offers outstanding performance, we think the smart #1 is worth considering for those in the market for an EV. 

Premium Variant Specifications

Motor: Single motor

Power: 268hp

Torque: 343Nm

Range: 440km

AC Charging: 22kW; 10-80% in 3 hours

DC Charging: 150kW, 10-80% in 30 minutes

Brabus Variant Specifications

Motor: Dual motor

Power: 422hp

Torque: 543Nm

Range: 400km

AC Charging: 22kW; 10-80% in 3 hours

DC Charging: 150kW, 10-80% in 30 minutes

We like: Voice command, performance, looks and ventilated front seats

We don’t like: Steep learning curve for the infotainment system

A lot of the all-new brands are from China, but some are also coming out of Europe and the good old USA as well. While that has been a common theme, some car makers are reviving well-known, legendary brands but as pure EV’s.

Take Lotus for example, the iconic British brand was bought over by the Zhejiang Geely group, and save for just one model, it makes only electric vehicles while once upon a time it made nothing but ultra-light high-performance cars. Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus, may be rolling in his grave but the company is now making big bucks, which should stop his twirl.

And we also have Smart, which is usually stylised in lower case. Though not as iconic as Lotus, Smart has been around since the 80s and has made quite a name for itself over the years.

Many associate Smart with Mercedes-Benz and they are not wrong about that. However, Smart’s story goes further than that. Smart’s foundations lays with Swatch watches when the latter’s CEO wanted to create a car with the same manufacturing technologies and personalization options as the watches.

But rather than going at it alone, Swatch began looking for automotive partners. Volkswagen had initially agreed to support the brand but that changed when a new CEO took up the mantle.

Smart and Daimler-Benz AG then reached an agreement in 1994 and a number of eye-catching cars such as the ForTwo and ForFour soon came around, but sales were abysmal.

Mercedes-Benz and Geely then formed the Smart Automobile Co. Ltd in 2019 and began building Smart cars in China. The German brand handled design and marketing while Geely would focused on architecture and engineering.

Fast forward a couple of years and Smart is officially in Malaysia with Proton thanks to Geely, except that this time there is a new company that manages the brand.

Proton New Energy Technology (Pro-Net) was formed in 2022 and handles sales of Smart cars in Malaysia and in Thailand. The first point of business was to establish the Smart brand in Malaysia, and thus, after a series of teasers, Smart was officially launched in Malaysia in November of last year.

Rather awkwardly called the #1 (pronounced as the hashtag one), the first model comes in three variants – the entry level Pro model, Premium, and the flagship model seen here, the Brabus.

Priced at RM249,000, this is officially the cheapest Brabus model that has ever gone on sale. And those that know Brabus will understand that Brabus cars are not your regular run of the mill models. Any car that has the Brabus logo is something remarkably special, and the #1 Brabus is no different.

While the lesser variants can be described as regular EV’s, the Brabus adds performance and good looks to it, particularly in this matte grey colour with its contrasting radiant red roof.

True to the original plan, the #1 was designed by Mercedes-Benz while Geely focused on the engineering. It is built on Geely’s Sustainable Electric Architecture (SEA) platform that also underpins other Geely brands like the Lotus Eletre, Zeekr 01 and Polestar models.

But the #1 runs on the SEA2 version to be exact, which is the same platform that is found on the Zeekr X and the Volvo EX30.

In terms of size, the #1 Brabus is 4270mm long, 1822mm wide and has a 2750mm wheelbase. At first glance, it looks similar in size to a MINI Countryman, but once you research the numbers, you will notice that it is in fact slightly longer than a Honda Civic. This should not come as a surprise though as the #1 is technically Smart’s first SUV.

Despite being quite large, which is something Smart cars were never meant to be, there is no mistaking its design. Somehow, Mercedes-Benz has managed to make it bigger, yet still retain its design DNA. The LED lights at the front and the back are connected by a light strip that runs across the length of the car. This looks good and accentuates the width of the car.

Take a seat in the captain’s chair and you are greeted by a minimalist interior. Directly ahead of you is a small 9.2-inch meter cluster that gives you all the essential readings such as the speed, battery charge and range of the car. Up ahead there is a 10-inch heads-up display that can be adjusted according to your height.

Dominating the interior though is a massive 12.8-inch infotainment screen that houses all the controls of the car. From here you adjust everything from the position of the side view mirrors to the safety systems, the entertainment, navigation and even look for the closest charging station.

One nifty feature that it has is a built-in navigation system with local info on charging stations. This shows you all the charging stations that are located near you, the status of the station (operational or not) and its charging performance.

The one feature we particularly like is that you can key in your destination into the map, let the car do the calculations for you and it will tell you whether you have enough juice to get there.

If you don’t, the car will show you where to charge and how long it will take you. It basically does all the hard work for you, and that is something that makes owning an EV more pleasant since there aren’t as many charging stations as petrol stations.

Once you have that out of the way, you can sit back and indulge in one of the finest sound systems found in an automobile. Entertainment is provided by Beats with 13-speakers placed all around the interior to ensure you don’t only hear your favourite music the way the artist intended you to, but also feel it deep in your organs.

But in case you are not an audiophile like us, you will be happy to know that the Brabus has its own augment engine sounds as well. There are two different engine sound options called the Smart original sounds and classic, which sounds too fake as compared to the former.

These sounds match the character of the Brabus, with 428PS and 543Nm at its disposal, this #1 is capable of some serious performance. The acceleration to 100km/h is seen off in 3.9 seconds and it has a top speed of 180kmh. This is blisteringly quick considering that it weighs in at a hefty 1900kg.

Even charging it up is quite impressive. The #1 is capable of 22kW AC charging which allows it to recharge from 10 to 80% in just three hours. That is seriously fast and rare. Most EV cars in Malaysia are only capable of 11kW or 7kW AC charging, and only expensive EV’s like Audi’s e-Tron’s or the Porsche Taycan are capable of 22kW AC charging.

But of course, it is also capable of some seriously fast DC charging. With 150kW capability, it can spruce up from 10 to 80% in just 30 minutes. The only problem? There are not that many 150kW DC chargers available that allow you to do that. As for range, the #1 Brabus has a 400km range as compared to the 440km of the Premium variant, but that is still better than the 315km of the entry-level Pro variant.

Besides its obvious performance talents, there is much to love about the #1 Brabus, such as its spaciousness that allows a family of five to get fairly comfortable with luggage space for a weekend at the beach. Build quality is great too and features such as the vehicle to load function lets you power up appliances like a fan or a coffee machine if you like to spend time outdoors.

Even driving it is super fun as the suspension has been stiffened to match its performance, meaning you can throw it into corners and slingshot out in stitches of laughter. But when you want to take it slow, just press a button to open the full panoramic roof and turn off the radio, sink into the ultrasuede leather seats and bask in its silent ambiance.

But it is not all praises for the #1 Brabus. The Gunmetal trim around the centre console tends to glare in the afternoon sun and this blinds you when driving. There are no audio buttons so you are left with the steering buttons or have to dive into that centre screen to adjust simple things like the volume.

Then there is the annoying Lane Keep Assist function that forces you to fight the car which wants to stay in its lane when all you want to do is swerve out of the way of a suicidal motorcyclist. These are simple things that can be irritating, but they are not deal breakers as there is plenty to love about the #1 Brabus.

In fact, and at the risk of being crucified by Teslaholics, we would go so far as to say that it is perhaps a better buy than a Tesla. We dived into Tesla Malaysia’s website and specified our very own Model 3. We chose the Long-Range version with 19-inch wheels and full self-driving capability. And that would set us back RM262,500. But its glass roof does not have a shade, nor can a tint keep it cool enough for a bald man to drive comfortably, so that is out.

Then we chose the Model Y and opted for the Long-Range variant with 20-inch wheels with self-driving capabilities and that would set us back RM293,000, which is substantially more than the #1 Brabus.

And besides, the real flex is owning a Brabus, how many people can say that? Also, if you buy a Smart over a Tesla, the friendly salespeople will even help you apply for a loan, where else with a Tesla, you must do everything yourself, very much like assembling Ikea furniture.

Specifications
Motor: Dual Electric Motors
Power: 428PS
Torque: 543Nm
Range: 400km
AC Charging: 22kW; 10-80% in 3 hours
DC Charging: 150kW; 10-80% in 30 mins

We like: Performance, Features, Handling
We don’t like: Simple controls can be hard to access