British International Motor Show - Smart

Smartforyou?
There's good news at last from Smart - and you'll find it on the company's stand at this year's motor show.

The company has ditched all but the Fortwo model in an attempt to turn around its fortunes, and at the show you'll find this, the Smart ev – which stands for electric vehicle.

The company plans to lease the electric car to 'selected corporate customers' from November at around £375 a month.

For that, you'll get a Fortwo with a range of 72 miles and a top speed of 70mph. The car foregoes the benchmark 0-60mph stat in favour of 0-30mph, which it can cover in 6.5 seconds - quicker than the petrol version.

It has the potential to be a great city car, and could be in its element in London because it is exempt from the Congestion Charge – and you don't have to pay road tax either.

Anything else of note?
Not this year. There is an all-new Fortwo in the pipeline but we won't see that in the UK until 2007.