Ferrari Performance from a 4 door EV?
That is the Ferrari F430. It features a 4.3 litre naturally aspirated V8 that revs to 9000rpm. Puts out about 478bhp, and does 0-100kph in 3.7 seconds. Amazing figures even by today’s standards. Brand new the car sported a 7 digit price tag and was the subject of rave reviews when it came out in 2004. In every word, it is still a supercar.
This Brabus #1 however is not a supercar, it cost just more than a Volkswagen Golf GTi, and has four seats and a relatively spacious boot. There’s even an animated Fox that shows up on the intro screen upon start up. In all its intended purpose, this is a city runnabout vehicle. But in just 20 years after the launch of the Ferrari, you get a car that just as, or perhaps faster up to 120kph than the F430. This Smart is very much worthy of the Brabus badge.
The Brabus Brand
We made a recap of what the Brabus brand was all about prior to the launch of the car. The Brabus branding is not one to be taken lightly. They have created some of the maddest and wildest modified AMG’s ever. Read that again, modified AMG’s, not the garden variety Mercedes Benz’s. If the Brabus badging was a mere ornament for the Smart #1 then it would’ve betrayed the branding.
What does it have?
The Brabus #1 is a beefed up version of the Smart #1. Instead of RWD now power goes to all 4 wheels. Horsepower is rated at 420bhp and torque at a massive 540Nm. Claimed 0-100kph is at 3.9 seconds. You get a comfortable range of 400km from the 66kW battery pack.
The interior is decked out with the Brabus logo almost everywhere. From the Alcantara seats, pedals, and red accents on seats, red stitching and red seat belts. Theres a 12.8 inch display with a 13 speaker Beats sound system.
How does it behave as a city car?
The car is relatively easy to use, giving a Mini Countryman kind of a vibe. Ingress and egress is about the same as the Mini, together with the layout of the dash and controls. The interior is relatively roomy with good headroom and legroom. The boot is also not too far behind with the Countryman at 411 litres (compared to the Countryman’s 480 litres).
Its magic trick
The Brabus mode. Thankfully its not that easy to access. But for those who are not used to anything above 200bhp do ensure that you have loads of road in front of you before stomping on the throttle in Brabus mode. The G force in acceleration is hard enough to hurt your neck. It is fast whichever way you cut it. The strongest acceleration is between 0 – 120kph. From 120kph – 160kph the acceleration rate drops. But from 160kph to 180kph the acceleration tapers more till the cut off at 180kph. Its quite crazy that a car that costs RM249,000 puts out this kind of acceleration.
However we have to say that this car could benefit from a far more beefy brake setup. The brakes are, bluntly put, trailing behind the MASSIVE acceleration the car puts out. Do get used to the cars breaking capacity before using the BRABUS mode.
Charging Ease
One of the neatest thing about the Smart app is its ease of charging. Having used several apps from Gentari, Charge EV and others, we find this app to be the easiest to use and download, with vital information about the vehicle and charger available in real time.
Charge time is relatively fast for an EV, with 20 mins taken to charge the car from 20% to 70% in 22 minutes. Of course 20 minutes is still a long time when you’re sitting alone on a Sunday at an EV charging station next to KESAS.
In Conclusion
The Brabus #1 used to be the most bonkers EV under the sub-300k price tag for a while. But in the recent few months there’s a string of cars who offer about the same or more performance at about the same ballpark price tag. However if a crossover with a lovely and functional interior, Beats stereo, the Brabus brand name and that charging app is what you are after along with the mental performance then this is the EV for you.