Smart ForTwo ED news - Smart ED: now with more noise - 2009

Smart has today announced that it will put the all-electric ForTwo into limited production in the UK, with the first cars reaching the road early next year.

If they've managed to sort out the range problems - when we road-tested the ED, despite a quoted 60 mile range, it ran out of battery after less than 30 miles - this could be good news: unlike most all-electric city cars (obviously we're naming no names here), the Smart has airbags. And ABS. And an actual safety cell. So you're not risking your nearest and dearest on every morning school run.

Because it's all-electric, the ED emits no carbon dioxide, monoxide or, er, anything at all, in fact (at least not directly, though of course it depends where you're getting your electricity from), and Smart says it will manage the equivalent of 300mpg.

It's not as painfully slow as most electric vehicles, either - the ED will hit 30mph in 6.5 seconds, which is just about tolerable for city driving.

But here's the problem. It's silent. That's what electric vehicles do, y'see. Enter Brabus, the Mercedes tuning firm which has just unveiled this, a blinged-up version of the ED... featuring a ‘noise generator'.

Yes, flick the under-dash switch and the Smart will impersonate a muscle car, a standard petrol ForTwo (can't see why you'd do that, but still), or just about any other vehicle you'd like it to mimic, from an external loudspeaker mounted at the front of the car.

As we've said before, we want ours to sound like a Star Wars Tie Fighter. What noise do you want from yours?