This off-road adventure with the smart #3 was undertaken by Chinese YouTubers Speedsters.
Conventional wisdom might dictate that with the lack of any charging infrastructure in the great outdoors, overlanding will be one of the holdout activities for the fuel-burning cars for years to come. But this particular smart #3 has just proved otherwise, as it has apparently successfully traversed the infamous Gobi desert.
The sixth largest desert in the world that covers part of northern China and southern Mongolia, this particular all-electric endeavour in traversing through it was undertaken by Chinese automotive YouTubers Speedsters. And while it is probably way cooler to say that they did it in a stock smart #3, the pictures here nevertheless shows of this SUV coupe having at least been slightly modified in order to tackle this mammoth adventure.
Starting from the ground up first, this #3 looks to be given a slight lift in order to accept a smart set of white steelies that are wrapped in chunkier 18-inch all-terrain rubber. Another obvious addition too to this all-electric SUV-coupe is a light bar and what looks like a custom camera rig that hangs off its roof rack, with the final touches being the blue stripes on its white bodywork and stickers on its side celebrating smart’s 25th anniversary.
Now unfortunately, further details regarding technical specification of this particular adventure-ready smart #3 has yet to be officially revealed. Though going by the lack of BRABUS bits on this SUV-coupe, it is likely (and rather incredulously) the purely rear-wheel driven Premium variant that was used as a base for this desert-traversing rig.
The standard smart #3 Premium boasts a 200 kW rear-mounted motor, which is then fed by a 66 kWh battery pack. Total WLTP-claimed range with this particular powertrain configuration is 440 km, leading to the likelihood of at least a few recharging stops being necessary when traversing this 1.295 million km² of desert.
Rather annoyingly too though is that details regarding this bit of the story is still as yet unknown, as is whether the #3 actually made it the whole 1,500 km length of the Gobi Desert. Though all should likely be revealed soon enough when Speedsters eventually publishes their video regarding this presumably epic adventure. So stay tuned for it!
