My partner was recently involved in a low speed collision in her Smart ForTwo ED. She has now been told that due to Smart’s safety battery shutdown device (which is irreversible) her car is now beyond ecoomic repair. Smart of course did not tell us about this ‘feature’ when we bought the car.
Do all electric cars have this feature or just Smart EDs? If it is just Smart EDs it would seem to be a glaring fault in the design that a low speed collision writes off the car. Anyone thinking of buying an electric Smart should consider this carefully and either buy ‘gap insurance’ (expensive in UK) or shop elsewhere.
[quote=EvForum;27320]I would certainly like to hear more information about this as it is a worrying development.
Do you think the company would give us an official response which we can publish on the forum?[/quote]
I haven’t contacted Smart UK directly though I certainly will. The other party’s insurance is keen to have the car written off and the insurance value they are offering is well below the cost of a replacement battery. Given that they have admitted liability for the accident we may get a full recovery but the law is a lottery, as we all know. More news as I get it.