Smart EQ forfour vs VW e-Up!

The Smart EQ forfour costs £1,090 more than the VW e-Up!. On the headline specs that premium buys little measurable advantage - the two are closely matched on range, charging and space. The VW e-Up! is not just cheaper - it also offers 81 miles more WLTP range, 40 kW faster peak rapid charging and 65 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Smart EQ forfour comes out ahead overall.

The VW e-Up! is £1,090 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £152 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the VW e-Up! comes out roughly £1,050 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 67 miles for the Smart EQ forfour and 116 miles for the VW e-Up! - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The VW e-Up! goes roughly 49 miles further between charging stops.

The two are within 20 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 755 mm of total clearance for the VW e-Up! and about 735 mm of total clearance for the Smart EQ forfour. The Smart EQ forfour also turns in a 1.2 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Smart EQ forfour and 84% for the VW e-Up!. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.