SMART #5 PRO

Brand's largest car yet arrives here in entry-level single-motor spec

- STEPHEN DOBIE

Get the least powerful one.' My younger self would have baulked at such mature counsel and perhaps not recognised the person doling it out. But in the ever-widening world of electric SUVs, it's the advice du jour - the scintillating, five-star Hyundai Ioniq 5 N being the exception that proves the rule.

So it goes with the Smart #5. A 4.7m-long, 2.2-tonne SUV that could swallow the brand's pioneering late-1990s city car in its wheelbase (with room to spare) is already a leap into the absurd for us enthusiasts who have feverishly followed the automotive industry all our lives. The fact our first drive was of the range-topping 637bhp Brabus model compounded the madness. We found it likeable amid the chaos, though, and a car with clear roots of something good that had blossomed in an unexpected direction.