2025 Smart #3 Brabus review

Remember Smart? No, not the one with a hashtag in the name. No, no, not the one that was a small SUV. No, not the one with four doors either. Our memories might be shortening by the AI-generated day, but surely we can go back a mere 25 years or so? 

The original Smart Fortwo was a ground breaking, ingenious, and cleverly-designed showcase of just how effective a miniature city car could be. One might even say it was - um - smart? As a former owner of a first-gen Fortwo, I’m well versed in the genius of the original design. Sure, we’re fixated on large cars, and it was probably too expensive here to make a big impact, but there was no doubting the genius of the packaging. 

Our 2004 Smart Fortwo was as comfortable crawling around town at 40km/h as it was firing down the freeway at 110km/h. We bought it from the original owner, a lady who had put the first 45,000km on it, including a run from Sydney to Melbourne and back with the Smart Car Club of the day.

In Europe, you’ll still find them burning past you at 130km/h in the fast lane. It used next to no fuel, was inherently reliable, practical and delivered a Utopian reality where you never had to worry about finding a parking spot. It always made me wonder why those of us who live in the city don’t buy more small cars. 

Well, Smart is back, once again available in our local market, with a very different product offering compared to the early 2000s. I still remember a Frankfurt Motor Show well before the COVID lockdowns where execs told us Smart would be the first manufacturer to transition from fully internal combustion powered to fully electric. Long before that looked to be the future, the brand had been bold about where it was going. 

In 2025, then, does the new generation Smart brand have a chance of success in our local market? The #3 Brabus could be a key pillar of its success if looks have anything to do with it. Silly name aside - who asked for a hashtag in a name - there’s something eye-catching about the styling of the new #3 in Brabus form. It certainly garnered plenty of attention on the road during our time testing it.

As you would have read in our pricing and spec breakdown, the current Smart is a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, and this model sits above the #1 as the halo model currently available.

The platform beneath the #3 we’re testing is the same as the Volvo EX30 and Zeekr X, both of which go head-to-head with the Smart #3 in our market. There’s more choice in this small electric segment than ever, so the question will be whether Aussie buyers are tempted to take a look at the new Smart. 

You don’t have to buy the Brabus version if you’d prefer to save money, with the range starting from $57,900 for the Pro+, then $61,900 for the Premium and lastly $70,900 for the Brabus. Those prices are all before on-road costs are factored in and represent a fair chunk of money - especially if you’re trying to find the most cost effective way into an electric vehicle. Pro+ and Premium are both RWD, while the Brabus is AWD.

However, EVs still aren’t inherently ‘cheap’ yet, and if you want to stand out from the regular crowd, Smart might be just the way to do it.

By way of comparison, the pricing structure positions it just beneath the Volvo EX30, which in Ultra Performance guise starts from $71,290 before on-road costs. As the politicians like to say, the battle for ‘hearts and minds’ is going to be a fierce one. 

Standard equipment includes 20-inch alloy wheels, a combination of suede and synthetic leather seat trim, sports seats, red paint for the brake callipers and an exterior sharpen-up with Brabus badging.

Inside the cabin, there’s a panoramic glass roof, heated and cooled front seats with electric adjustment, a 13-speaker audio system, a 12.8-inch infotainment touchscreen, wireless smartphone connectivity, a head-up display, and ambient cabin lighting. There’s also autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, adaptive lane guidance and adaptive matrix headlights.

The cabin of the #3 Brabus is the type of design you would expect from Mercedes-Benz, regardless of who was actually responsible for it in the join venture. The sports seats are excellent, sporty enough without being hard, and the quality of the materials used, fit and finish is excellent. Soft touch surfaces are positioned where you’re likely to appreciate them, the driving position is effective for drivers of varying heights, and visibility is also excellent. 

It’s only 4400mm long, so you could easily assume the Smart #3 wouldn’t be particularly big on space, but the packaging genius that existed in the original, is retained for this new iteration. Space in the second row is useful even for taller adults, and that’s with tall adults up front.

The luggage area delivers 370 litres, you can access a deeper space by moving the floor, and it expands to 1160 litres with the seats folded down. Annoyingly, like the first-gen Smart we owned, the glass roof can transmit a lot of heat in the Aussie sun. A big glass roof is lovely in theory, but so is a proper sunshade if you need it. 

The 12.8-inch infotainment screen is responsive to commands, but the menu system itself is complex and can be confusing. This is a car you’ll need to spend some time with in your driveway or garage to get your head around the controls. Yes the little animated fox is cute, but it would be preferential if the menu systems were easier to decipher. There are physical keys provided for features like driving modes for example, but not for audio volume. 

Once connected (pretty quickly too), wireless Apple CarPlay worked well for us on test, plus you also get in-built Spotify and satellite navigation if you’d prefer to go that way. We liked the regular driver’s display, which works in concert with the head-up display, and is a much smarter system than Tesla’s silly centre-screen only option. 

There’s a 66kWh battery pack, that can charge up to 150kW and run from 10 to 80 percent in less than 30 minutes at a high charge rate. Brabus gets its AWD from two electric motors, and the headline numbers are eyebrow raising - 315kW and 543Nm.

You read that right - 315kW and 543Nm from a small SUV. Serious power and torque, which combine to deliver a 0-100km/h run of just 3.7 seconds. It does tip the scales at a not inconsiderable 1910kg, but it’s fast - very fast. 

I’ve written before, that we need to get away from silly power figures and straight line speed when it comes to EVs, and start focusing on all the regular ‘car things’ they needs to do well.

Fewer party tricks, less complicated tech, and more manageable power outputs, along with improvements in driving dynamics, driver engagement, ride quality, handling, and energy usage. The good news is, the #3 still gets those things mostly right. 

For example, the suspension is tuned nicely to deal with poor urban road surfaces, well-damped and quick to settle after taking a nasty hit. The steering has that artificial feel that’s hard to convey in written form, but is a common malaise among the modern EV brigade.

However, it is light at parking speeds, and weights up nicely at highway speed, meaning it delivers the right feedback to the driver. 

Conversely, there’s complexity to the initial set-up, and the menu systems that control the #3 and the lane-keep system and speed limit warning are constantly chiming away in the background. Less intrusive than the worst we’ve tested? Yes. Still annoying? Also yes. 

Brabus claims 17.6kWh/100km on the combined cycle, and on test, we used an indicated 19.6kWh/100km, which is on the hungry end of the spectrum for this type of vehicle in this class.

The non-Brabus variants will of course be more efficient, as you would expect. Claimed range is 415km, which you will probably eke out in traffic around town, but not if you’re using long stretches of freeway. If you’re using 19.6kWh/100km regularly, a range around the 330km mark is the end result. 

#3 gets a ‘Benz-esque gear shifter on the column, where our indicators would normally be, and for those of you new to that game, that will take some getting used to. It unequivocally tidies up the console area, which is what the designers keep telling us, but still isn’t quite as intuitive as it might be.

Select Brabus mode and you’re accessing all the twin motors have to offer, such that the #3 gets cranking off the mark with serious urgency.

The AWD system means it doesn’t engage in any lairy scrabbling or silliness when you nail the accelerator pedal from take off, and features like active anti-roll technology play their part to keep everything on the straight and narrow.

It’s actually quite a fun little SUV to punt enthusiastically, but at the outer limits, you’ll notice the near two-tonne weight you’re trying to feed into a tight corner.

The suspension tune comes into play here, too, ensuring the #3 Brabus can deal with mid corner bumps without losing composure. 

If you buy an EV, you’ll no doubt work through the regenerative braking settings to find the one that best suits your driving style. The #3 defaults to the median setting, which is probably a good starting point.

It’s not so aggressive as to feel artificial, but it's still noticeable. The highest setting will effectively allow you to learn how to drive without using the brake pedal most of the time.

The 2025 Smart #3 Brabus is a fun, engaging Small SUV with the cleverness of electric propulsion, but also practicality we’ve come to associate with the Smart brand.

It’s different to what it was, but equally as useful in the key areas the target buyer will expect. Time will tell whether the rebirth of Smart will resonate with Aussie buyers. 

Trent Nikolic has been road testing and writing about cars for almost 20 years. He started at CarAdvice/Drive in 2014 and has been a motoring editor at the NRMA, Overlander 4WD Magazine, Hot4s and Auto Salon Magazine.

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