It will only be relevant to a small number of people, but Smart’s next-generation electric Coupe and Cabrio will answer a question which at least those people asked

Range is normally a defining factor in electric vehicles. So when a new model comes out, you expect it to be good for a lot more miles than the car it replaces.

When it arrives in the UK next summer, however, the new Smart Fortwo ED will have a quoted range of 100 miles – only about 10 more than its predecessor.

For a car designed to stay in the city, it could be argued that that’s enough to constitute a real improvement. But what else does the new electric Smart have going for it?

Smart Fortwo Electric Drive

On sale: Mid-2017
Price: £16,000 (est, after Gov grant)
Engine: Synchronous electric motor
Power: 80bhp
Torque: 118lb/ft
Gearbox: Single speed
Top speed: 80mph
0-62mph: 11.5sec
Range: 100 miles
CO2 emissions: 0g/km

The first answer is a shorter charging time – 80% battery capacity in about 150 minutes, or 45 with the optional fast charger you can have installed at home. The juice turns a new electric motor, whose 80bhp and 118lb/ft are usefully more than the old one.

That’s what’s new. What’s not is that it’s just like driving any other Smart. This means that for one thing, you don’t have to learn anything new first time you get behind the wheel – and for another, it’s a smile-making breeze around town.

Smart’s engineers have reworked the throttle to make it smoother in stop-start traffic, which is good, but you can still take off like a scalded cat if you want to. With your sensible head on, meanwhile, there’s an Eco button which trims it to get the most out of the battery so you can keep going for longer.

All the electric propulsion gubbins makes the EV heavier than a conventional Fortwo, but it’s placed low down so if anything it actually rides and handles more tightly. It feels smooth and settled at low speeds, so it’s well set-up for tooling around in town. Naturally, it’s nice and quiet, too – though it’ll be available in Coupe and Cabrio form, and with the top down the latter will let in all the sounds and smells of the city.

Driving the Fortwo ED, we found that the best we could achieve was about 75% of the claimed 100-mile range. That’s more than most will need in a typical day, but if you drive with a heavy right foot the range will drop still further.

Thus we’d say that in order to be interested in this car, you’d need to live in a city and never drive anywhere else. Chances are the city will be one with a congestion charge, too, which is starting to narrow things down a bit – and while 100 miles sounds like a lot, you’ll spend a lot of time with it plugged in.

If none of that puts you off, and nor does a likely price of about £16k (after the government grant), the Fortwo ED could be the answer to your prayers. At the very least, it could an alternative to a Renault Zoe or VW eUp. But this is a car with a limited audience – and a limited range to go with it.