Smart seeks partner for ForTwo successor (Update)

Smart isn’t abandoning its city car roots. After concentrating on larger electric SUVs with the recent #1, #3, and #5, the Chinese-German company is considering a successor for the ForTwo and maybe even the roadster. In an interview, Smart Europe CEO says the brand is “working on it.”

That being said, Smart isn’t willing to go at it alone. With no suitable platforms readily available in the Geely group, Smart is looking for a partner to share the development costs of the base for its future small electric city car and fun roadster.

“We’re working on it.”

For over 25 years, the ForTwo was Smart’s most popular model. Three generations came one after the other, making it also one of the best-selling small city cars.

However, things have changed. Back in 2019, Mercedes-Benz got rid of the brand, which, at that time, was only producing one model. A 50/50 joint venture with Chinese group Geely was created, new models have come out, and, more recently, production of the ForTwo ended without any replacement.

Smart doesn’t seem to abandon the idea of a small electric city car. In a recent interview with British magazine Autocar, Smart Europe CEO Dirk Adelmann revealed that plans were being set up. “The run-out of the current ForTwo was two months ago. It would have been great to have a direct successor – we don’t, but we’re working on it”, he said.

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Adelmann added that Smart wasn’t ready to go at it alone. “The best year for ForTwo was around 100,000 units, and that’s not enough to justify a platform,” the CEO explained to Autocar. Currently, all Smart models—the compact #1, coupé #3, and large boxy #5—sit on the Geely modular SEA platform, shared with Volvo, Polestar, and Zeekr models.

Creating a ForTwo successor would mean using a new, smaller platform. However, Smart doesn’t have one readily available in the group to fit such a tiny package.

Ironically, the brand that created the über-compact city car is now looking for a partner. There are no words yet on who that partner could be. However, if Smart aims to keep the future ForTwo under three meters with RWD, no platform currently befits these parameters.

Project 2 and further

Despite this hindrance, Adelmann is convinced that bringing a new-era compact city car to Europe would make sense. Proposals for the future model already exist.

Internally, it’s known as “Project 2”, meaning that the production model could take the name of #2. On that note, Adelmann explains that despite the #2 being much smaller than the #1, the number two remains an “iconic number” for the brand.

But there is more. Dirk Adelmann told Autocar also that a revival of the small Smart Roadster as an electric car to expand the brand’s model range was an option. “If we do a Roadster, rest assured it will be very compact – for sure a two-seater,” he said.

As soon as the core range of electric models, i.e., #1, #3 and #5, is in place, the brand could begin “to shift focus to more enthusiast-minded, low-volume propositions,” Autocar writes in the report.

The problem is that with such compact vehicles, the prices and margins are usually so low that profits (or even the break-even point) are only possible with high unit numbers – a problem that Smart also has with the Fortwo successor. Niche models for enthusiasts are very difficult to realise economically, especially in the small and compact car segment.

Smart knows this by experience. With a production time of only three years, the first-generation Smart Roadster was not a big commercial success. The high prices, minimal discounts, and a partly unconvincing drive system for this type of car led to low demand.

By the end of production at the beginning of November 2005, 43,000 units had been built, around 11,000 of which had yet to be sold. Nevertheless, the small Roadster started to get a cult status, also because of the low numbers produced, and well preserved examples are now sought after on the second-hand market.

There’s maybe another, more emotional but even more important reason that Adelmann is  so open to the idea of a new Roadster edition is probably because of his “very emotional relationship with that vehicle,” as he puts it. A Smart Roadster was once his first company car.