On April 7, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the new Smart #1 in Germany, Chinese named Genie #1.
Compared to the traditional Smart model, genie #1 can be said to be a very subversive model, not only catching up with today's digital wave, but also the first mass-produced SUV model in the history of the Smart brand.
More surprisingly, there is also its "origin", which is a Mercedes-Benz "body" plus extreme Krypton "heart" model, the new car is based on Geely's latest vast platform to build, and extreme Kr 001 is considered a "distant relative", while its design details are completely handled by the Mercedes-Benz team, quite a bit of EQXX charm.
At present, this level of luxury brand exquisite small SUVs, there are almost no on the market. How competitive is Genie #1? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
High-profile and high-ended, fully embrace intelligence
In 2019, Mercedes-Benz established a global joint venture for the smart brand, and the main shareholders are Mercedes-Benz and Geely Group. At that time, the two sides would fully collaborate in research and development, manufacturing and other fields, which was considered to be a sign of Smart's transformation into a light luxury smart pure electric technology brand.
Now that the first model has finally been produced, it really gives people a bright feeling and subverts everyone's perception of the previous Smart.
The new car adopts the latest "sensuality and sharpness" design concept, and the outer contour of the entire body is very soft and rounded, giving people a slow sense of urbanity. The triangular LED light cluster is combined with the through-type light strip, so that its headlights present an "X" shape, which is highly recognizable. The trapezoidal grille with rounded corners is lowered, with the function of active air intake, which not only dissipates heat for the electric drive system through a specific air path, but also actively changes the windward area when necessary to obtain the best aerodynamic effect.
Smooth body line, simple body sides, low wind resistance wheels, frameless doors, hidden door handles, these new designs make the wind resistance coefficient of Genie #1 reach 0.29Cd, which can maximize energy savings. Diamond-shaped leather seats, Beats speakers and oversized panoramic canopy further enhance its ride comfort.
And from the interior design, Genie #1 is definitely refreshing. Compared with the fuel model, its internal layout is extremely simple, and the most eye-catching is the personalized LCD meter and the 12.8-inch floating touch screen.
Thanks to the highly intelligent blessing of the Haohan architecture, the new car's vehicle-machine system has 12GB of memory and 128GB of storage space, which has strong scalability. The vehicle has the function of dynamic OTA software updates, and more than 75% of the ECU in the vehicle support subsequent continuous remote updates. The artificial AI genie assistant will become a carous travel companion, which can complete most of the in-car control through voice control, while having excellent growth to ensure that the more you use it, the better it is.
Thanks to the new architecture, Genie #1 optimizes space to the extreme, which is truly compact on the outside and wide on the inside. Compared with the MINI COUNTRYMAN of the fuel sequence, it has a slightly shorter body, but the wheelbase exceeds a full 80mm, and the length of the small SUV class is forced to make the longitudinal space of the medium SUV level. Its width of 1822mm is even 2mm wider than the C-class, which is enough to ensure lateral space.
The second row of seats in the new car is slidable, the trunk volume can be adjusted between 323-411L, and the seats can be reclined to get 986L of storage space. In addition, the front of its front also leaves a 15L "front trunk". Without a doubt, this will be one of the most practical Smarts ever, not even one.
High performance + long endurance + high intelligence, driving texture turned the world?
In the past, Smart models rarely went out of the circle with performance. Because the original intention of the smart brand is to deal with the two types of scenarios such as transportation in big cities, or special cars to pick up children. Therefore, its brand models are mainly cars, and they are also equipped with small displacement engines.
After the transformation of electrification, thanks to the advantages of the new architecture, Smart Genie #1 will be completely "moved", which will also make it more playable.
The new car is built on the rear-drive platform, equipped with the latest permanent magnet synchronous motor, the maximum output power reaches 200kW, and the peak torque is as high as 343Nm, which is already 3.0T level power. With the blessing of the new powertrain, the new car only takes 6.7 seconds to complete the 0-100km/h acceleration. For comparison, the Tesla Model Y's 0-100km/h acceleration time is 6.9 seconds. As you can imagine, the driving experience of the new Smart will definitely be refreshing.
The new car is also equipped with a ternary lithium battery pack with a capacity of 66kWh, and the maximum cruising range will reach 560km, which is also very good for the current small SUV of this level. At the same time, the new car supports fast charging, 5-80% charging time is less than 30 minutes, which can achieve extremely fast energy replenishment and eliminate the user's mileage anxiety.
Genie #1 is equipped with the latest Smart Pilot intelligent driver assistance system, which can achieve ACC adaptive cruise and LKA lane keeping assistance in the full speed domain, while having BSD blind spot monitoring function, which can control the vehicle situation in all directions.
The latest APA automatic parking system is also mounted on the new car, this system can be said to be well received, can make the vehicle remotely start, and automatically drive out of the basement, travel can also accurately judge the road conditions, if there is their own private garage, this function can be said to be quite cool. For female users who have difficulty parking, they can also greatly alleviate the pressure and solve some "difficult" parking problems.
Mercedes-Benz's advance and retreat, how will Smart develop?
It can be seen that for the same level of small SUVs, Smart Genie #1 is basically "fully matched", performance, endurance, intelligent configuration and brand, basically the industry ceiling level. The biggest suspense is probably the price.
At present, there are many rumors, but smart officials have always been "tight-lipped". First of all, according to the brand positioning, genie #1 should be bmw MINI COUNTRYMAN, the starting price of the car is 249,800 yuan, with a 1.5T three-cylinder engine + 7-speed dual clutch, and the configuration of the version can not be seen. According to this line of thinking, genie #1, which has previously promised to start with a high match, seems to be at least 300,000 yuan to sell. After all, the space is perfect, the performance is complete, and the technological texture and luxury texture are also crushing.
But at present, 300,000+ electric vehicles are basically all high-performance electric vehicles. For example, Genie #1's "distant relative" Krypton 001, Tesla Model Y, or the ideal ONE. Therefore, it is difficult for Genie #1 to sell at this price, because this luxury market has not yet been cultivated.
Even from the action of Smart itself, it can be seen that it does not intend to go all the way to the high-end road. For example, the previous concept car is designed to open the door, and the mass production car becomes a more people-friendly swing door because the economy is better. For example, its concept car grille can be fully lit, with a very dreamy effect, and the production car has also eliminated such a "fancy" design. Including the dynamic headlamps have also been modified, just to be simple and practical.
In fact, looking at the new Genie #1, it does have a sense of technology, but most of the design is from a practical point of view, intended to reduce the price as low as possible.
It is quite possible that Mercedes intends to build the new Smart into a blockbuster brand. The era of electrification is different from the era of fuel vehicles, personalized cars may not be niche, like Euler good cats once sold more than 10,000 a month, for domestic cars, it is not "cheap".
From this point of view, the new car is really possible to position 200,000 yuan, directly in place, after all, Geely also has a high voice in this new brand. In this way, it will undoubtedly have an impact on the exquisite electric vehicles on the market, and the Volkswagen ID.3 may bear the brunt of it. Of course, the Model Y will also be affected, for many users who like foreign brands, SUVs have new options, more luxury, excellent performance, good space, and the key is cheap.
Kung Fu shoots
Smart Genie #1 can be said to be menacing, as a new electric car that emphasizes personality and practicality, it has almost no opponents on the current market. Its positioning is much higher than the dolphin, good cat and other self-owned brand cars, and has the playability that the Volkswagen ID.3 does not have, and it is also much more refined than the model Y car, which allows it to have a considerable audience.
At present, the biggest suspense is probably the price, 300,000 will hang, 200,000 will explode, depending on how the manufacturer chooses.