Smart #5

The brand's first family SUV combines a tech-filled interior with off-road looks and kit On sale 2025 Price from £40,000 (est)

- Claire Evans

THE NUMBER FIVE is considered significant in many fields, including mathematics, science and religions. In numerology, it stands for enjoyment, freedom and adventure, and these are attributes that might have been on the minds of the Smart #5's designers when they were creating the brand's first family SUV.

The electric #5 sets itself apart from its smaller, sleeker #1 and #3 siblings with boxy, rugged-looking exterior styling and the sort of off-road accessories that you'd expect to find on a Land Rover Defender. These outdoorsy looks are backed up by traction-enhancing four-wheel drive (on some versions) and a variety of off-road driving modes.

The #5 does have some of the same design elements as the #1 and #3, including a panoramic glass roof, frameless doors and short front and rear overhangs. At 4705mm long and 1705mm tall, it's larger than a Renault Scenic E-Tech and similar in size to the latest Peugeot e-5008, although it has five seats rather than the latter's seven.

For some drivers, it won't be the exterior styling that captures their imagination as much as the 637bhp power output of the range-topping dual-motor #5. That figure not only trumps the Brabus versions of the #1 and #3 by more than 200bhp, but also makes the hottest #5 more potent than rivals such as the Kia EV6 GT and Tesla Model Y Performance, and close to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N hot hatch.