Smart is not the brand most people think it is anymore. In fact, the Fortwo, the little egg-shaped, two-seater city car that’s most associated with the brand, to the extent that it was almost ubiquitously known as the ‘Smart car’, quietly ended production last month after 26 years.
No, there’s simply not much money in very small city cars anymore, and Smart, which is now 50-50 owned by Mercedes-Benz and Geely, needs to move with the times if it’s to survive and stay relevant. That, rather inevitably, means electric crossovers.
Smart Concept #5 – side
We’ve already seen the first couple of products of this new approach in the form of the #1 and #3, and Smart is sticking with this utterly inane naming system for a new concept, the Concept #5, which it’ll undoubtedly insist is pronounced ‘Smart Concept Hashtag Five’. #catchy.
Set to debut later this week at the Beijing Motor Show, it previews the brand’s largest production car yet. Described as a mid-sized SUV, the Concept #5 is dressed up as a bit of a baby overlander, with knobbly tyres, underbody protection and some excellent LED roof lights.
Smart Concept #5 – interior
Smart says it’s based around an 800V electrical architecture, which will allow for a range of over 341 miles and a 10 to 80 per cent charge time of 15 minutes. It’s a concept car in 2024, which inevitably means two things: a full suite of advanced driver assistance tech, and an on-board generative AI assistant.
On the inside, it gets – count ‘em – three screens: a digital instrument cluster, as well as two identically-sized infotainment screens. If the production car carries this over, we’re sure Euro NCAP will have a field day with it. A big floating centre console provides storage space and armrests.
Smart Concept #5 – rear
The production #5 is set to debut in the second half of 2024, and will likely carry over the concept’s boxy silhouette with some of the more aggressive off-road elements toned down. We don’t know much about the technical details, but smart money would be on it using the same Sustainable Experience Architecture underpinnings as the #1 and #3. We’ll #find out for #sure #later this #year.
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