Smart Brabus Electric Drive generates noise like the Enterprise

Are you tired of being run over by near-silent electric cars? No, us neither, but we've got good news for anyone who often finds themselves wandering into the path of freakishly quiet oncoming eco-cars.

Meet the Smart Brabus Electric Drive -- a modified version of the Smart ED prototype we tested back in April 2008. This one's been given the once-over by German tuning company Brabus, which has painted it spearmint green and white, fitted a matching interior, and added some interesting new gadgets.

The most significant addition, as far as we're concerned, is the noise generator. Flick a switch under the dashboard, hit the go pedal and the car makes a noise that sounds like the USS Enterprise as it enters warp speed. The sound doesn't come from the internal speakers, either -- it's generated by an external loudspeaker positioned towards the front of the car. If you want something slightly less bonkers, flicking the switch in the other direction will make the car sound like a highly beefed-up Smart ForTwo. It's ace.

Inside the cabin, Brabus has installed a Kenwood DNX5220BT multimedia head unit that's packed to the gills with features. It'll act as a sat-nav or as a replacement rear-view mirror when hooked up to a rear-facing camera. It'll also play DVD movies, JPEGs and MPEG1/2 and DivX files, and let you control your iPod. This too, as you can probably imagine, is ace.

The Smart Brabus Electric Drive is still in the concept phase and won't see the light of day until Smart launches the consumer version of the standard Smart ED, and they're not saying when that'll be. Click the thumbnails above for for more pictures, and come back in a few days for video of the system in action.