Smart Plans to Launch Electric Successor of Fortwo, with Profitablity a Key Consideration
TapTechNews July 15th news, according to Autocar report, the European CEO of the smart brand revealed that the company is planning to launch an electric successor model of the Fortwo, but the project has not yet received final approval and needs to prove its profitability.
The Fortwo is the first model of smart and one of the smallest models in the European market. After 26 years of production, the Fortwo has currently been discontinued and there is no direct replacement model for the time being. However, Dirk Adelmann, the European CEO of smart, confirmed that the company is developing an electric version successor model of this car.
We are working on it, Adelmann said. The current Fortwo has been discontinued two months ago. It would be great to have a direct successor, but there isn't one yet, but we're working on it.
The internal code name of this car is Project 2, and it is expected to be named Smart #2. Regarding the possible confusion in naming (because #1 is a crossover), Adelmann explained that the number 2 is specially reserved, because it is a signature number of the smart brand and should be used for the successor model of the Fortwo.
Adelmann said that as the smart car product line continues to expand, a naming pattern will be formed in the future, that is, odd numbers are used for SUVs and coupe SUVs, and even numbers are used for other products.
However, more important than determining the shape and style of the electric car is to ensure its profitability. To this end, smart is looking for partners to share the research and development and production costs.
The market size of (compact city cars) in Europe is not huge, Adelmann said. The best-selling year of the Fortwo is only about 100,000 units, which is not enough to support the research and development of a platform. If we can share the platform with partners - we are still evaluating - then we can share the investment cost, production site and other expenses, and then it becomes reasonable. We definitely don't want to produce a car that no one makes money from, because such a model won't last. We hope this car is a profitable project for ourselves, for retailers, and ultimately for consumers.
According to TapTechNews, the smart brand is 50% owned by China's Geely Automobile. Geely has a huge portfolio of automotive brands covering various sizes and classes of vehicles. It is not yet clear which brand under Geely will become the compact city car partner of smart, but from a size perspective, the Geometry Panda is the closest to the original Fortwo. The Geometry Panda is a three-door pure electric city car with a range of 200 kilometers and has four seats.