If most kinds of lithium batteries - especially those with cobalt-oxide chemistry - are discharged completely to zero, then an attempt is made to recharge them, the result is an explosive chemical reaction an violent fire. So, electric cars must be conservatively designed so that it is impossible to discharge any cell in the battery pack to zero - and if this does happen, the battery pack is permanently disabled. This is done in the battery packs for cell phones and laptop computers. The state of charge which gauge indicates "zero" and the car stops running is probably actually 20 percent.
The Smart ED has some poorly thought-out design features - mostly due to its designers making bad assumptions - some of them cultural. They probably thought: "why would anyone ever take any chance at getting stuck on the side of the road running the electric car down to zero." But in some less socially-atomized cultures (like close-knit Arab cultures where everybody has a friend who drives a taxi or tow truck?) this might be thought of a less of a problem. So, the European Smart designers probably designed a very small state-of-charge margin for the battery pack (which is already smaller than any other plug-in EV battery pack), and if the car is discharged to zero more than a few times, the battery pack is disabled.
By the way, if a Smart Car is disabled, it cannot be towed with the rear wheels on the ground - this will damage the motor electronics.
I'm impressed that people are adopting electric cars in Jordan. In my part of the USA, electric cars are almost nonexistent. Are there government programs promoting electric cars for environmental reasons? Gasoline must be very cheap there, right?
