It’s the top of the street for the Smart EQ ForFour. Production of the Smart with the additional doorways has ended at Renault’s Novo Mesto plant in Slovenia final month, and the electric hatchback is not on sale in markets together with the UK. The Renault Twingo Z.E, a sister automobile with a lot of the identical {hardware}, stays on sale in most European markets, Autocar says.
The EQ ForFour has been available on the market since 2017 and was given a facelift as not too long ago as 2019. Powered by an 80 hp electric motor and small 17.6 kWh battery, its 70 miles (112 km) of vary is just not very aggressive in as we speak’s EV market.
The ForFour’s departure leaves the EQ ForTwo – available in hardtop and convertible form – as the one Smart mannequin on sale within the UK.
However, later this yr, the Smart vary will quickly be boosted by the production model of the Smart Concept #1, which is being developed by Geely. In case you forgot, the Chinese automobile group is now part-owner of Smart, having obtained right into a 50:50 JV with Mercedes-Benz AG (then Daimler AG) in March 2019 to develop the Smart model.
In this new period for Smart, Geely will lead the engineering of the electric vehicles, whereas Mercedes will likely be accountable for design and styling. The production Concept #1 SUV would be the first mannequin of the Geely period and the model’s first bespoke full electric automobile – no extra inner combustion engines.
A 2019 Munich show debutant in September, the Concept #1 is described as a “clear insight into the first production model in Smart’s new generation of all-electric vehicles” and patent images from a month later present an SUV that stays very true to the idea.
The Concept #1 transfers “very compact exterior dimensions” and “traditional Smart design” into “a new vehicle concept with a significantly higher premium and high-tech claim,” the corporate says. It measures 4,290 mm lengthy and 1,910 mm extensive, with a 2,750 mm wheelbase – to provide you an image, that’s longer than a Perodua Ativa however shorter than each different B-SUV in our market; nonetheless, that wheelbase is 90 mm longer than a CR-V’s.
Smart says that its new mannequin technology has a strong central pc that controls 4 foremost domains: infotainment, driver help techniques, electromobility-specific features and the electric/digital (E/E) car structure. Thanks to dynamic OTA (over-the-air) software program updates, greater than 75% of all ECUs will be up to date remotely on an ongoing foundation, Smart says.
The mission of Mercedes-Benz and Geely – which founder has a substantial stake in the German company by the way in which – is to develop Smart into a number one world supplier of related, battery-electric premium automobiles for demanding buyer teams, in their very own phrases.
GALLERY: Smart Concept #1
