2025 Smart #5 Premium Review: A Giant Rolling Tablet with an Identity Crisis

The 2025 Smart #5 Premium represents a clean break from everything the brand used to stand for, measuring exactly 4.7 meters in length. This is a D-segment mid-size electric SUV co-developed by Mercedes-Benz and Geely, built on Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture. Mercedes handled the styling while Geely engineered the platform, resulting in a vehicle that is significantly larger than a Skoda Enyaq. It targets family buyers who need a spacious daily driver but want something more distinctive than a ubiquitous Tesla.

The Tesla Model Y Premium RWD starts at €49,900 in Germany. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 Centriq 84 kWh RWD can be ordered today for €53,150. The Skoda Enyaq 85 carries a base price of €48,900. These are the primary benchmarks that this new entrant must beat to justify its existence on European roads.

The entry-level Smart #5 Pro with a smaller 76 kWh battery pack starts at €45,900 in Germany. If you want the larger 100 kWh battery pack with the Premium trim, the list price rises to exactly €55,400. That is a substantial sum of money for a brand that built its reputation on cheap, plastic city cars. You should ask yourself if paying this much for a Chinese-built crossover with a German badge makes sense when the established competition is cheaper.

The manufacturer claims a maximum driving range of up to 590 kilometers under the WLTP testing cycle for the rear-wheel drive model with the 100 kWh battery pack. These figures are estimates provided by European testing labs and should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. The actual efficiency will fluctuate wildly based on how hard you press your right foot and how cold the weather gets.

Real-world driving conditions typically deplete battery packs fifteen to thirty percent faster than official WLTP estimates suggest. You can expect about 380 kilometers of practical highway range when driving at a steady 130 km/h in mild weather. In congested city traffic, where regenerative braking does most of the heavy lifting, the car should easily cover 490 kilometers on a single charge. If you live in an area with harsh winters, expect these numbers to drop further as the heating system saps power. You must plan your long trips around real highway consumption rather than the optimistic numbers on the window sticker.

The Smart #5 Premium uses a lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide battery pack, commonly abbreviated as NMC. This chemistry provides high energy density, allowing Geely to pack a massive 100 kWh total capacity into a mid-size SUV chassis. NMC battery packs hold their charge better in cold German winters than lithium iron phosphate alternatives, though they are more expensive to produce.

The 800-volt architecture allows the battery to accept up to 400 kW of DC fast charging. That means you can charge from ten to eighty percent in eighteen minutes at an ultra-fast charging station. You will rarely see that peak speed unless the battery is pre-conditioned and the charger is completely empty, but the speed is there when conditions are perfect.

The underpinnings of this vehicle consist of the Sustainable Experience Architecture, Geely’s dedicated electric vehicle platform. It shares this platform with premium sibling models like the Zeekr 7X and Volvo EX90. Utilizing a dedicated EV platform means there are no transmission tunnels or engine bays to compromise interior packaging. The rear axle houses a single permanent magnet synchronous electric motor producing 363 horsepower and 373 Newton-meters of torque.

The body uses a combination of high-strength steel and lightweight aluminum to manage the vehicle’s massive curb weight of 2,260 kilograms. Liquid cooling and an intelligent heat pump manage the battery’s temperature to keep charging speeds consistent during winter. The electric motor delivers smooth, instant torque that makes this heavy SUV feel much lighter than it actually is. Towing a trailer will halve your electric range immediately, though the car is rated to pull 1,600 kilograms.

The front suspension relies on a traditional MacPherson strut design, while the rear axle uses a sophisticated multi-link setup. Unlike many heavy premium electric SUVs, the Smart #5 relies on passive steel springs and traditional hydraulic dampers instead of complex air suspension. Mercedes-Benz engineers tuned this suspension to prioritize compliance and road isolation. It absorbs potholes and speed bumps with impressive composure, feeling like a much larger luxury cruiser.

The trade-off for this buttery ride is a significant amount of body roll when you carry speed into a tight corner. This is not a sports car, and you should not drive it like one. The steering is light and lacks road feel, though it is precise enough for daily commuting. The accelerator pedal has a slight delay when you press it, meaning you will constantly adjust your right foot to compensate for the sluggish throttle response.

The dashboard is dominated by three separate digital displays, including two 13-inch OLED touchscreens and a 10.25-inch instrument cluster. There is ample headroom and legroom for five adults, thanks to the long 2,900 mm wheelbase. The materials on the doors and dashboard feel expensive, using Alcantara and real wood trim. The seats are wide and supportive, offering electronic adjustment and heating as standard on the Premium trim.

Smart has eliminated almost all physical buttons from the dashboard, forcing you to use the touchscreen for common tasks like climate control and volume. Adjusting the side mirrors requires you to open a submenu on the central screen, which is a safety hazard when driving. Brake regeneration levels are also buried deep within the menus, preventing quick adjustments on the fly. The only saving grace is the steering wheel, which retains solid physical buttons instead of the touch-sensitive panels found on modern Volkswagens.

The door panels completely lack physical controls for adjusting the side mirrors, meaning you must use the central screen just to adjust your view. You will quickly grow tired of poking at a glass screen just to turn down the heat on a cold morning. The lack of tactile dials makes this car feel more like a giant rolling tablet than a proper motor vehicle. You should demand better from a manufacturer charging premium money for a family car.

The main rear cargo hold offers exactly 630 liters of luggage capacity with the rear seats in their upright position. This expands to 1,530 liters when you fold the seats flat, which is highly practical for family duty. There is also a 72-liter front trunk, or frunk, which is the perfect place to store dirty charging cables.

The infotainment system runs on a fast Snapdragon processor, but it features a digital lion avatar named Leo that feels like a childish gimmick. The active safety systems are overly sensitive and beep constantly, requiring you to dig through menus to turn them off every time you start the car. The 20-speaker Sennheiser sound system is an absolute highlight, delivering crisp and powerful audio that almost makes up for the frustrating software.

The Smart #5 comes with a comprehensive five-year vehicle warranty and an eight-year, 200,000-kilometer battery warranty. Geely’s SEA platform has proven to be mechanically sound, but the software stack is a different story. Early owners of the smaller Smart #1 and #3 models have reported numerous software bugs, screen freezes, and failed over-the-air updates that required unscheduled trips to the dealership.

The vehicle was officially released for order in Germany in April 2025, which means there is no long-term reliability data specifically for the #5. While the simple mechanical suspension and proven electric motors are unlikely to cause major headaches, the complex electronic systems and buggy smartOS software remain a gamble. You should expect some early-adopter glitches if you buy this car in its first year of production.