Post your excitement in this thread in exactly 1 year from now.
I think it's a little early but here we are...
ONE YEAR LATER
Short story: I still love this car and drive it almost every day, and the days I don't drive it, my girlfriend always takes it to work and begs me to drive my other cars some days because she likes it so much. It's fun, quiet, maneuverable, less stressful, 100% reliable, and saves me lots of time and money.
It's certainly not perfect which I'll explain throughout...
In the past year I've put 15,000 miles on it, and it's getting to the point where it needs new tires. Other than that, no significant issues at all, still goes 70+ miles each charge (zero change in range), and it's never left me stranded or had any problems except a leaking differential seal (which they will warranty but I have to schedule to get it replaced) - funny to see an EV dripping oil, luckily it's a tiny amount. I've had a few close calls where I drove right to the limit of the range, but if I take it easy in those situations it can go 80 miles on a charge. That I recall we've had two times where we HAD to drive a gas car... once we took her Fit because we had a 500 mile drive to drop our dog off with family before going on vacation, and once when we took my Westfalia on a 1000 mile camping trip. For every other weekend trip, errand run etc, we take the EV. We have packed an incredible amount of stuff into it when needed for grocery shopping etc., We even bought luggage with it for our vacation last year. We have gone to the beach a dozen (35-50 mile round trip depending on route) and brought tent/chairs/ice chest and still had room for our dog. The Smart is surprisingly roomy.
I charge it only using a 110v outlet, which takes about 8 hours to recover completely from my commute. I charge off-peak while sleeping, which gives me a discounted rate of $0.10 to $0.12 per kWH. I haven't checked for a while but before we switched to the solar/wind plan, with losses, 9 kWH on my Smartmeter drove me roughly 40 miles, or 4.4 miles per kW, so around $0.03 per mile. Our power is currently claimed 75% solar/wind (from our provider, not at our house) now, and about 25% natural gas. I hope to have solar of our own some day but still researching... Also I'd love to have a 220 charger and a timer for it, but I don't want to re-wire the house right now.
AC on full blast will cut the range by about 10%. Instead of going 70, it'll go around 60 miles. If I had my 60 mile commute that day, I would either plug it in at work or suffer a bit more discomfort for part of my commute. So yes, more range would be welcome. The heater takes more like 20%, but I haven't used it much, because being in CA, the heated seats are easily sufficient for almost every day. I also wear driving gloves when it's like ~40 outside. But if I garaged it or used pre-conditioning it would be even better. The heater also heats basically instantly, MUCH faster than a gas car, which is nice. So usually I'd turn on the heat for a couple minutes, turn on the heated seats (which have basically no impact on the range) and turn off the heater once it warmed up. But it never gets below freezing here.
The upright and high seating position, huge windows, quiet interior and one pedal driving make it a wonderful car for traffic. The RWD, low center of gravity, and lightweight make it fun toss around. Here's an instance where the narrow size helps a lot:
This happens almost daily on my 40 mile commute (which is now 60 miles two days a week when I go to school). If you are turning right at a stoplight and there's a car in front of you, only a very narrow car can squeeze by. The Smart can manage it though.
It also saves me queuing at metering lights onto freeways here, where the EV "white sticker" allows you to go in the carpool lane, then I get my half off bridge tolls ($2.50 per day), and never have to divert from my commute for gas stations. My Fiesta would've used 500+ gallons of premium gas commuting like this.
Some bad things: The wind hits it quite bad on a bridge I take, sometimes 40+ MPH gusts. You have to pay attention in those situations, but not nearly as bad as my Westy. There's a bit of tire/wind noise but it's still quieter than all our other cars. It tops out at about 80 MPH, which means you can't always lead the pack. It also chews through range a lot faster at 80 than say, 60, so you find yourself driving a bit slower. The brakes are good but the tires aren't wonderful (Kumho I think), so if you drive aggressively you might find the stopping distance less than ideal. Again, blows away my Westy
My co-workers also both have EV Smarts, and alternate/switch between Chevy Bolts, while their wives drive the other car based on needs. One has said "The Bolt is the best car I've ever had"... for the record, he's had numerous other fantastic cars, tons of Porsches, Lotuses, Hondas, Toyotas, and Jaguars. He's the one that sold me on EVs in the first place. Here's what he said about the Smart vs. the Bolt:
The smart is fantastic, but I hadn't driven the Bolt for a while, because my wife did. The Bolt is way more luxurious and way quieter. It does feel kind of wasteful as I'm driving this giant thing around. The Smart feels like it's got "all I need" and it's way more utilitarian. The Smart is GREAT for getting into gaps, merging when needed. Way easier because it's way smaller, darty and maneuverable. Slightly more regen would be nice. The Bolt has awesome regen. It's faster but the Smart is zippy at city speeds. In our world and environment (if you lived in any kind of city or bustling suburb) commuting, it's really great. If you're averaging 70+ MPH on your typical drives, the Bolt blows it away.
Keep in mind you can find these used Smarts here for $4000 now! I'm restoring an AW11 MR2 and drive it a couple days a week, and it's more fun, but for most driving I still prefer the Smart.
I'll report in next year with another update. By then I'm hoping my girlfriend dumps her Honda Fit and we get a Bolt or Tesla. But I can't imagine getting rid of this car. It's just so useful and simple to drive. It does exactly what a car should do, better than any car I've had before this.
If I didn't have a regular commute, and had some great roads without traffic to drive on often, I wouldn't drive it nearly as often. But for errands when there are other people on the road, which around here is almost every day, I take it as my first choice between my four cars (the Fit, Smart, Westy van, and MR2). The MR2 gets driven on weekends and when I can enjoy some backroads.