Smart – or smart if you write it as its creators intended – has had a somewhat rollercoaster history. The concept was created by a fashion watchmaker, made possible by a deal with the oldest car maker of all, Mercedes-Benz, and launched as a ‘fashion’ brand selling a tiny and distinctive two-seater city car.
In Smart’s early days, the concept appeared to work. The ‘Smart car’, as it was known to most people, proved particularly popular as an urban runabout and city centres formerly swarming with mopeds and scooters – such as Rome – soon became overrun with Smarts. And young, trendy buyers bought the cars because they believed they looked good being seen in one.
The novelty soon wore off, however. Attempts to spread the Smart’s appeal to a four-seater and a roadster failed, despite the latter being quite well received, and the brand leached money, to the point where the company launched to sell it was shut down and became a mere division within the Mercedes-Benz family.
Various attempts to reposition Smart, eventually turning it fully electric, failed to generate much in the way of profits. However, in 2019 the Chinese giant Geely rode to the rescue, reaching a deal with Mercedes that saw Smart relaunched as a manufacturer of electric cars built in China, with most of the quirkiness that had marked the brand out in the first place removed.
So who or what is Smart?
The first Smart appeared in 1998 but the concept for a small city car had emerged more than 15 years earlier – not in the design studio of Mercedes-Benz, which would eventually make the cars, but at Swatch, the Swiss company renowned for making fashionable watches.
Swatch head Nicolas Hayek pitched his idea for a small and stylish city car, that could be personalised like his watches, to several car manufacturers. Swatch initially signed a deal with Volkswagen in 1991, but the car maker pulled out of the project and Mercedes owner Daimler-Benz replaced it in 1994. A subsidiary company called MCC (Micro Compact Car) was set up to produce what became the Smart.
The first two-seater Smart City-Coupe and City-Cabrio appeared in 1998, making immediate headlines for their tiny dimensions and recognisable shapes, which were like nothing else on the market. The production cars weren’t quite as radical as Swatch had envisaged, and within a year Daimler-Benz bought out the watchmaker’s shares and Swatch’s involvement ended.
The personalisation concept remained, however. Most notably, the car had swappable plastic body panels that could be unclipped and replaced in minutes. The idea was that owners could keep multiple sets of panels to swap around at will, choosing the look of their car according to their mood. Unsurprisingly, no-one did this…
While very small, the car was also promoted as being very safe, with a visible safety cell usually painted in contrasting colours to the plastic panels. Small petrol engines offered power outputs of about 60hp – though later you could buy upgraded versions produced by Mercedes tuner Brabus, which raised this to a staggering 75hp.
By the time the original Smart was facelifted in 2002 it was known as the Fortwo, and in 2004 it gained a sister with four seats called the (you guessed it) Forfour. This was a more conventional car, based on the Mitsubishi Colt, but this only lasted three years on the UK market.
More positively received, though equally short-lived, was the Smart Roadster, a two-seat mid-engined sports car sold between 2002 and 2005. It only had a 696cc turbocharged engine but was fun to drive, let down by only being available with an unpleasant-to-operate gearbox.
The extra models did not last long because Smart found it very hard to make money, losing close to €4bn between 2003 and 2006. By then sales were sliding, so Smart was terminated as a separate company and absorbed completely within Daimler.
A second-generation Smart Fortwo was produced between 2007 and 2015 and for the first time an electric version was made widely available, though it only had a maximum range of around 80 miles.
The third-generation Smart Fortwo, launched in 2014, looked distinctly different to its predecessors, as updated safety regulations required a new shell that gave the car a much bulkier shape than its predecessors, with a proper bonnet section. The Forfour was revived, but this time it was basically a reworked Renault Twingo.
Both the Fortwo and Forfour were also offered in electric form and from 2019 these became the only cars available, as Smart tried to turn itself into an electric-only car brand. The electric models added ‘EQ’ to their names (the same designation Mercedes-Benz uses for its electric models)
Both were cheap compared to rival EVs but suffered from poor battery range. The EQ Forfour, in particular, could have been a highly practical EV but in normal driving owners struggled to get much more than 50 miles between charges – and charging was anything but rapid. Unsurprisingly, the Smart division still struggled to make a profit.
Smart’s effective rescue came in 2019 when Daimler signed a deal with Chinese giant Geely. An assembly plant in China is now building a completely new range of electric Smart cars, larger and more conventional than their predecessors. The first of these, the Smart #1 (yes, they want you to call it “Hashtag One”…), arrived in 2023.
What models does Smart have and what else is coming?
Today Smart is in the process of revival and repositioning – tiny city cars are out, larger family models in, and all electrically powered. Currently just one is available, the Smart #1 – it’s a five-door small crossover targeting the likes of the Kia Niro and Volkswagen ID.3, and has been generally well received, especially for its safety specification.
A second model is arriving imminently in showrooms, called the #3. This is effectively a coupe version of the #1, with a much more aerodynamic shape.
We don’t know what happened to the #2 but perhaps Smart doesn’t like even numbers – the third model planned will be an SUV, and called the #5. The concept made its debut at the Beijing motor show in April 2024 – when the production version arrives, possibly before the end of 2024, it will be the biggest Smart yet.
Where can I try a Smart car?
The number of outlets selling the Smart has fluctuated over the years and you should not assume that by going to a Mercedes-Benz dealer you will be able to test drive a Smart.
The brand relaunched in 2023 with 23 UK sites, which was around half the number it had ten years earlier, and it has plans to expand this number to 36 ‘in the coming years’.
What makes Smart different to the rest?
To be honest, the Smart of today is far less different compared to when the brand launched just before the millennium. Then the cars scored on their tiny proportions, distinctive shape and their fashion-led promotion with such quirks as the easily swapped plastic body panels.
Today’s Smart is now being presented as a much more conventional manufacturer of much larger cars, though compared to the mainstream opposition they still have enough quirkiness about them to appeal to buyers looking for something a little different.
A Smart fact to impress your friends
The short-lived Smart Roadster could have been reborn as a UK-made car wearing a badge from lost British classics.
In 2006, a year after Roadster production ended, UK businessman David James planned to buy the tooling from Daimler, and build new cars in a factory in south Wales badged as MGs, reviving the then-dormant British sports car brand.
James didn’t get the rights to the MG name, so he then planned to market the roadster as the AC Ace, AC being another British brand that dated back to 1907. The project also never came to anything.
Summary
The Smart story is one of form not triumphing over function. Today, the new Smart models have very little of the quirky appeal that marked out their predecessors – but they’re probably more likely to succeed and attract the number of customers Smart needs to be a viable car company.
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