Can An $800 EV Tune Make Our $7K Smart Electric Tesla Quick?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2020
- ( www.TFLcar.com ) Our 2015 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive is great for getting around tight and narrow streets, but it's not exactly quick. Can a straightforward modification change that, though? Let's find out just how much quicker the Smart is after fitting it with a power module!
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#Smart #Tune #Acceleration - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
The yellow colour adds 50 more horsepower.
50 mr. ed extra
A black racing stripe would add even more.
@Air Force Juan If you wore a G-suit it may be OK.
LOL
Obviously 🙄
Tommy says his mechanic is like a wizard. As we all know there's only one whizard mechanic!
WEEEEEEziiird... 😁
HESSSS THE TURBBBBOOOOOO YODAAAA
A lot of people underestimate the smart car as a whole, it's good to see some people who finally appreciate the engineering and purpose behind it
You gonna put a lift kit on it, yet?
AWD for those Colorado winters...and double the battery pack
Great video again. I'm thrilled to see there is somebody in the USA who appreciates the electric as much as I do. I've tested the kist last week as well and I'm also in love with the added regen. Even had it on the dyno, It's now doing close to 100 HP, instead of the base 75 HP.
You're right. The smart got the same motor as the Fiat 500e (the SMG180 by EM-motive GmbH, a company by Bosch and Daimler). Only difference is, that the Fiat 500e got a little different gearbox as the smart. The motor is actually rated for 80kW. They limited it in the smart to 55kW (60kW Brabus) as they where concerned it could fall on it's bonnet when flooring it on a ramp. :D
And, for all the nerds like me out there:
The HV-plug at the motor of the smart as a little different as the one on the Fiat 500e. ;)
Can you share the dyno plots? Pretty please 🤗
With the increase in regen does it put the brake lights on?
@@jd3757 no, it doesn't.
@@TheStuartstardust you can check it out on my blog post about it:
www.eqpassion.de/en-gb/Repairing_an_electric_smart_car
If fiat bought smart and built it here.. 3 cylinder turbo diesel(stator to start engine and charge batteries)with optional electric power from stator for city stop and go.. (US) Vw beetle
I heard $70 at first and was like "that's a no brainer!" But $700 🤔
Nearly $800 for a 7.5% 0-60 improvement, most of which is only felt between 15-40 MPH. Def not worth that much, IMO.
I do really wonder if there might be a cheaper (and better) option possibly swapping the Fiat 500 motor control unit into this car (unless the battery has a different voltage).
@@sugonmaballs depends on the range. Would have to see at least a 20% improvement for that cost IMO.
@@sugonmaballs Right... performance gains under 20% are barely perceivable when driving .. so why spend even $70, much less $700.
You also have to think about the fact that people don’t buy these cars to go fast, I don’t see how there would even be a market for this device, especially being over $800
The content you guys produce is absolutely amazing TFL!!!! Love this lil Smart car!!!!
that’s nice
finally a someone who loves smart cars
The guy knows his electric motors!
I've had this car since June 2014 and I FREAKN LOVE IT. I have the trailer hitch, moved entire houses, 1 ton of gravel, and outpaced jaguars, BMWs, Mercedes, all in that 0 to 40 mph range.
No. I wouldn't spend $700 on this. $200 maybe. But I'm looking forward to the regen results.
Are you on the original battery? I’m seeing a good deal but worried about it...
@@danisantos3255 yes. I've never lost a mile and I'm at 61,000 miles. now i HAVE babied it. fast charging as little as possible and only less than 20% a hand full of times. I HEAR that long term storage below 20 % is a sure fire killer, regardless of the 12v battery condition..
David Kraft oh that’s good! The car I’m seeing has a lot of range too, the owner says more than 70 miles is achievable but I’ve heard horror stories about HV contactors and what not... since the battery isn’t rented, I’d have a 7k€ scrap car
Nice video again! I was looking at this MOD for my Smart ED and once again you uploaded a video. This is getting spooky! Very very interested in the regen and seeing the braking performance, Are we talking one pedal driving? Please let us know your range results too🙂 Thanks again guys, keep up the good work!!
I can't see that higher regen rate would add anything to range, as it would be stooping/slowing harder, but over a shorter distance, so the total charge from decelerating between two speeds would be about the same. Maybe if you do a lot of heavy braking that would otherwise use the friction brakes, or the stock setup engages the friction brakes too early in the pedal travel, otherwise hard to see how it would help.
Been thinking about getting this. Thanks for the review!
Still haven't installed your hood properly! Don't be surprised if it flies off.
I bought it for my 2019 EQ and installed it - the Steinbauer Kit. I love it!
did it extend the range?
Toby’s instructions really helped me do this myself. Please pass this onto him for a beer/coffee
Your mechanic’s voice and pronunciation is the sweetest thing ever..what a cute guy! Knows his stuff too!
Thanks for sharing! Now the electrification of the LR3!
Great video Tommy! Do you have any B-Roll showing the 0-20 and 0-40 from the Solo DL before and after the upgrade (besides the screenshot in the video)? It’d be really helpful to compare those, since that’s where you saw the gains. Also for fun compare it to some other cars?
I have an i3 for example and it’s 0-60 is around 7. But the i3’s 0-30 at one point was the fastest out of their BMW line up (including M cars).
Power can be the least needed tuning option for electric cars. Many not so expensive electric cars here in China can make very fast 0-60 time now.
Electric power comes easy as long as motor and battery are strong enough, nice control, weight distribution etc for good handling is not so easy to fix if its badly designed.
@@FlyingFun. That's indeed the case that handling of many first gen and cheap electric cars in China are not so good on the suspension design, wihch should be utterly different from gas engine car due to the weight distribution. But try Nio, whose electric control module and chassis /suspension are designed by their US/German teams respectively. I can't say NIO can match Model3's sportcar-like handling, for a larger SUV, the road manner of NIO is sophistically and surprisingly good, the ride is comfortable and the interior is much better equipped than a Tesla. With a 4 seconds 0-60 time, luxury interior, and nice chassis, I think NIO es6 is a much better suv than an Audi Q5. And, for the first gen NIO buyers, they can swap battery free of charge.
Timon Zhao You are Chinese? Please buy American V8 Muscle car.
@@angelgjr1999 haha, I ride a bicycle 99% of the time because it's more fun than sitting in traffic burning fuel polluting but that's another story lol, electric tric cars are only green whilst you drive them, to make them makes lots of pollution and impacts on the planet..
Tj3 lock down has shown many people that bicycles can be an effective and fun mode of transport but different story in winter of course.
In uk we don't see many v8s either probably because fuel is too expensive lol.
@@FlyingFun. must be nice lol. I transit 50 miles to work everything day, so no bike.
Answers:
No I would not buy this kit for $770
No it's not worth it
If I had an EV, I would consider it if the gains were more substantial
Awesome video! Though believe it or not depending on driving habits the increased regen might actually decrease your range. If you normally stop and slow down using regen then using weaker regen your putting less power back in but over a longer period of time. By increasing the regen power your now putting in more power over a shorter period of time. But energy losses are proportional to the current squared. So if you double your regen you quadruple your charging losses. It's actually more efficient to apply light regen (or even coast) where possible. However if you commonly do hard stops and you are using the friction brakes often this upgrade might improve your efficiency a bit as strong regen is still better than wasting all that energy in the brakes.
this is my first hand experience. air resistance is the largest factor. especially temperature. yes the batteries have less capacity, but dense air is significantly noticeable at around 15%.
If the same motor is rated at 80+ kW in the 500e and only 55 kW in the Smart, there is a very high chance that the Smart's drivetrain is battery limited in terms of power. My guess is the smart uses a cheaper but lower peak/sustained output battery than the 500e, meaning you may be able to get a little bit more power out of the car but run the risk of frying the battery. Regardless I'm excited to see how the piggyback tune works on range, since it clearly does add a noticeable improvement in performance and power
It also has lower weight and a smaller stance on the ground so there’s much less stability on the smart car
Thats pretty cool, do they have booster kits for E-Golf's?
Hey Tommy,
Thanks for this video.
Loved this video.
Do you still have this Smart Car and have you finally finished modding/altering it?
After all the mods what kind of mpge and range does it get? Do you have any issues/problems?
What is the total cost of ownership over the last two years?
I am considering buying a Smart Car for very short range/ local /city driving. Do you think it is worth buying or should I forget about Smart Car altogether and go with a new golf cart instead.
Thanks.
Yes, it will be interesting to see how range, recharge and battery life are affected over time with this tuner. Interesting video.
Tommy is the New Top Gear !! Great fun videos ..👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🏎
Tommy, if you go to Steinbauer's website, it says this is not available in the US. It also lists the price at $1390. Where did you get this?
Did you try to make power test after chip? Smart has engine same as fiat 500E which has 122hp just are locked to 75km due to weaker batteries.
I'm guessing it changed the accelerator module values or something similar. An ev has a performance map for differant engine, battery, inverter temperatures, throtle positions and probably a few more things i'm forgetting rn. A gen 2 prius is actually a great(if not perfect) learning ground for migrating from an ice vehicle to an ev.
Is there a way to upgrade the chargers on these if you're stuck with a 3.3KW charger that takes like 12 hours?
Can two solar panels and inverter system be plugged in while at work charging 6 hours?
Is there a kit to upgrade the battery?
That's a very mild upgrade but I'm betting that they intentionally made the upgrade mild to keep it from stressing the motor. I wouldn't be surprised to see a higher "tune" level in the future. Still the mild upgrade seems to be worth the price because of the 20 to 40 mph drivability improvement you mentioned.
is the range effected?
Damn, looks exactly like a clean version of my 08. Mines from California, so has faded paint but 26,500 miles
The background music reminds me of the Utah Saints tape I had in the late 90's.
Would an all LED lighting upgrade(swapping out all of the halogen bulbs for good quality LED bulbs) affect range aswell? Considering the drls are halogen and its on all the time.
I've done this and its negligible. as In I couldn't tell. But I prefer the LED light while driving.
I'm sold. Makes buying tne smart EV that much more appealing. As for reliability, even if this was gas, I know from being a 120k miles so far, you have a long way from any issues.
I would suspect that the inverter and battery are the soft spots here. Check the thermals on those. Also like rodding a gas car eventually the drive train may break from excess torque. Rod-em and have fun!
Why didn’t you DIY the install?
I agree with previous comment, Loveland Trail again! Please. 😁👍
Did it reduce the range much?
How will extra regen. perform in snow....
I can't find where to order this in the US
marketing a kit including your module for standard old model cars for converting would be surprising !!!!
Higher levels of regen is generally less efficient so it may actually reduce the range.
Do a new range test with the mod?
I shall watch for a follow up, but would be interested to hear the change to 30-70 times.
Any link to this product?
Not only would I consider it, I was ready to buy right now just for the Regen upgrade. But I can't find where they are selling it!
Hi ! How many the car yellow please?
wish they had something to parallel the on board charger with another one so you could get 6.6kw
What electric vehicle runs on normal size batteries and is not controlled like the ones from Tesla?
If you lower the car 1.3 in your 0 - 60 will be faster, the smart don't have to settle into the springs as much when the car accelerates
Okay, but how is it on the Rubicon Trail?
ooh hell yeah more furthermores
So funny. In Spain I had a diesel Smart, you want to talk about slow. 100km with a strong tail wind
Cute little car, hard to find those now on the market, but is definitely not for drag racing
No modifying in the video?
Did smart stop in the USA?
I love my 2013 ED. It replaced my MR2-Spyder, it's extremely fast from 0-30, and it's more fun in the City than any other car I've driven. - Paid $5,000 for under 20K miles.
Hmm interesting. I also have a 2016 Brabus Electric Smart. Not sure if they cost is worth it for less than a second increase but cool to know
Great video guys, you must be really brave to drive a smart car in the USA where most vehicles are big American Pick-Up trucks.
Seriously....this Smart EV is a turd!
Well, now you've got me looking to see if there is such a thing for my Nissan LEAF!
Sounds like a good way to break it
I love the smart electric and I want one, but I dunno...I would totally pay $800 for a tuning kit if it got it down to like 7 seconds but that's not a big enough change for the money
Connectou-Connectou-Connectou-Connectou-Connectou ! Perfect !
Will it work on a ⛽ gas operated Smart 🤓 Car? I have a 2008 Smart car, gas only.
I emailed them monthes ago. Never got a reply about buying the tuning kit
My 2014 Chev spark ev 7.5 sec 0-60. Was $7400 and holds 4 people. Mike(Mic) drop!
lol, best comment so far!
How many miles has that motor been through? Also, what kind of range are you getting?
mic
Why drop poor Mike? What did he do?
@@petermorales695 59K miles and I get 80+ miles during nice warm weather and about 50-60 miles in the dead of Seattle winter. I've never taken it all the way to empty and we usually just use it for groceries and in town trips.
Even stock, the 0 to 60 time isn't bad but I think the 11 seconds Smart says is for 0 to 100km/h. The difference in speed is small yes but electric cars lose steam at higher speeds. Interested to know the range now.
$700 is a lot of money to go from slow to not as slow. Hopefully it pays off in range.
High regen is an efficiency killer... unless it's detached from the throttle pedal. The i3 has strong off-throttle regen, and it's crazy hard to find the "coast" spot in normal driving. I would much rather have low level off-throttle regen, and paddles to increase it when wanted. Best efficiency is never using regen, but coasting down at net-zero power. Regen is only about 40-60% efficient at recovering the energy that was expended to accelerate the vehicle in the first place. The motor inverter is optimized for forward motion, not reverse.
The regenerative braking is highly conditional, it does not automatically mean improved efficiency. For the average driver in heavy city traffic it would probably be beneficial, but you don't gain free energy. If you were able coast for longer instead of wasting energy on only partially restoring the battery, you would see better results. Even in my medium size city, I can get better economy by planning out my red light stops and coasting up to them.
Tommy likes to mod things!
Appears to be good engineering leaving the bottom and top of the power spectrum stock and only focusing on the midrange.
Hey I love your videos! But when are you going to start filming in 4k!!!! Would look so much better on my 75” tv! Just saying 🙃
This is awesome. Can’t wait til there is something like this for my model 3 sleeper.
mad636man There is! driving.ca/tesla/auto-news/news/canadians-hack-tesla-to-offer-50-hp-acceleration-boost-at-half-the-cost
Aussie2u hmmm I read the article and it seems that it only upgraded it to the Tesla “boosted” version. I already have the performance model. But thanks for the info!!! If you find anything that will give me more power than the performance model as a plug-n-play. Let me know!!!
There already is. There is Powerboost from Tesla that drops 0-60 by .5 second or if you don't mind voiding your warranty and losing OTAs there is the Ghost firmware that gets you P3 performance.
mad636man so 3 seconds 0-60 isn’t fast enough for you? I guess once you get used to it, you want more. Understandable.
David DiStefano oh for sure. First time I hit the accelerator I was scared and laughing. I had never been in anything like it. But after 2-3 weeks of showing your friends it becomes normal. Haha that being said getting into my wife’s Nissan Rogue is a reminder of normal driving.
adding a large bean burrito added another 80 horsepower in propulsion . lol.
Electric motors are very different to ICE engines from the tuning point of view. ICE performance is all a very complex compromise. You can get more power at the expense of driveability emissions longevity etc.
An electric motor always runs at the optimum point. That is the best for all conditions. What is also different is how much longer you can overpower them. An ICE has very large margins for durability. If you run it at twice the power it will wear out twice (or maybe faster) as fast. So manufacturers have a sweet spot for durability cost and performance. An electric motor is designed to work at rated power continuously. The same goes for the electronics.
If you exceed it by a small percentage they blow up.
The main problem being heating. The other problem is the strength of the magnets on the motor. Once you reach that limit you do not get more torque even if you put more current. So manufacturers design them to work closer to the limit than ICE. So the potential for hotting up is limited. You can improve the cooling so you can run closer to peak for linger but you can not make the peak much higher. The only exception would be where the manufacturer installed a bigger motor from anotge car. In that case you can get more but u don't see why they wouldn't let you have the full power. Unless it is to protect the battery. So the performance gains on EVs will be much lower than on ICE cars and will probably shorten the life of the battery.
I just heard "connectour... Connectour... Connectour.."
So the slow golf cart is still slow?
For the Canadians interested I looked into it...$2026.50 Canadian plus $50 shipping . Kinda takes the fun out of it .
How does this tune affect the range, if it does?!
I think I counted 19 connectors lol 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
The regen is the most practical upgrade for this kit. Did you say it was $500? Otherwise not too sure I would buy the $800+ kit.
5:57 Faster deceleration or stronger regen is not the same as more energy. You just recuperate the same amount of energy in a shorter time.
I just want one with more mileage :(
hello how about you add an aditional battery pack at the back.
@@perezjoseangelmarcomontene9035 is that possible?
Tweety on steroids!
I would recommend trying a 0-30mph test as the smart ED was designed to out accelerate other cars in the city.
If the other cars are not moving? What is the 0-30 again?
@@ericharrison619 standard, about 4 seconds.
A light electric car will pull away quicker than most cars initially.
I have butthurt a lot of BMW and Mercedes drivers at traffic lights.
evilution theres alot of slow bmws and mercs out there 😂
It does not sound like it will hurt the motors.
The battery, though - that's another matter. Your Smart car has a pretty small battery. The device you installed fools the computer - which is programmed at a trade-off point between performance and battery longevity. The device changes the trade-off - more acceleration and regenerative braking in exchange for more wear on the battery.
How much will you lose? The manufacturer might be able to answer that question based on the developmental testing they conducted on the vehicle. But they're unlikely to respond. Aftermarket products are 'use at your own risk.'
Love this smart car series. Not worth upgrading for such little gain.
Tommy QUIT BN SOOO KOOL!!!!U R THE MAAAN EVEN W!O DAD AROUND!!!!ROCK ON FOR AMERICA!! WE ALL LOVE THE VIDZZZ
Next, one for model 3!
8:22 "It feels the same" 🙄 Don't tell us how it feels since it is subjective. Just give us the hard cold data. To me, a 3/4 of a second acceleration increase is neglectable
Electric smarts have a lot of torque but not much BHP. Going up to 60mph uses BHP which is why the increases are negligible.
Doing a speed test that only relies on torque, say 0-30mph, should show a bigger difference.
From a standing start at traffic lights, a standard smart electric will leave most ICE cars standing for the first 30 meters. Enough to get in front of them if you need to nip in.
@@evilutionltd I have a Smart and I do agree that they are great city cars
@@evilutionltd The smart will win a 0-30 with almost any ICE car if they are not aware you are racing. It's fun, I drove one, but that 0-30 advertising SMART did (BMW did the same) is wishful thinking. BMW claimed the i3 was their fastest 0-30 car when it was new.
@@DeputyNordburg Nobody tries to race a smart from the lights because they don't think they have to try. By the time they realise, it's too late. It's all about surprise.
The best ones are the chavs in their modified rice cars who normally screech away from all traffic lights. All you get is a load of induction, exhaust and tyre noise as they disappear in your rear view mirror.
@@evilutionltd The great thing is they will be unaware you are racing at both the beginning and end of the race. They will be surprised if you tell them.
I'm not a big fan of the idea of piggy-back systems in gas cars. Especially with newer vehicles the wrong information to the computer could cause damage to the engine over time depending on what signals you are duping and how aggressive it is. On an electric, well, I guess we'll see!
More with the Subaru please
Do they sell it for 453?
You could also flash the Brabus firmware. While this would only be a bump from 55 to 60 kw its no piggyback solution.
I mean don't get me wrong that much time is nothing to sneeze at, and the improved regen would definitely be of interest to me. but being the engineer I am I'd probably rewire the battery a bit so that it would output more juice to the electric motor, rewire the motor so it could handle the extra power, and then have a range of about 3 miles, but I'd do it in 14 seconds.
I'd also instantly regret it, but that's neither here nor there. lol
Calling it a “Smart electric Tesla” adds at least 500hp
Tesla did convert the firs smart to electric which they were then awarded 50 million from Daimler to fund Model S. So Model S exists because of the success of converting a smart to electric and wooing daimler executives
Give the car some love and clean the motor