The world of city cars has taken a battering in the past decades. While never a chart-topping segment, city cars have usually sold in decent numbers around the world. Tiny cars have almost gone extinct here in the United States, while almost every so-called A-segment vehicle in Europe has seen heavy losses in the past few years. Smart thinks there’s still life left in city cars, and it wants to be the king of the segment. According to a new interview from Auto Express, the company says its new Fortwo, which could come by the end of the 2020s, will “define the A-segment.”
If you check out reports on the European car market, the A-segment (city cars) has taken a beating. In 2024, A-segment sales in Europe dropped sharply by 22 percent year-over-year. It’s a part of a years-long trend that even saw the Geneva International Motor Show penning an explainer about why city cars appeared to be dying. The conclusion? Meeting increased safety and environmental standards while maintaining profitability was getting harder. It’s not just Europe, either. America has seemingly given up entirely on the city car concept. But Smart sees hope in the world of city cars.
Smart’s situation has been extremely weird since the late 2010s. In 2014, Smart launched the third generation of the Fortwo city car and backed it up with the second generation of the Forfour four-seat city car. Smart did a lot of work fixing the problems people had with the early Fortwos. The new cars had snappy dual-clutch transmissions or an optional manual, responsive turbocharged engines, softer suspensions, and of course, a variant with more seats.
Yet, these new cars arguably didn’t quite captivate the world like their predecessors did. Combined sales of the Fortwo and the Forfour were only a little better than what the Fortwo was able to do by itself just a few years prior. Smart followed this up with the announcement that the brand was going all-electric. This happened first in America in 2018 (before Smart left America entirely in 2019) and then the rest of the world by 2020.
In 2019, Mercedes-Benz sold half of Smart to Geely and in the years since, has moved production entirely to China. Geely has helped spearhead a dramatic and sometimes confusing rebirth of Smart. Mercedes-Benz and Geely have overhauled the brand into a producer of legitimately fast cars loaded down with all of the latest tech goodies. But the twist is that all of these cars have been SUVs with terrible names.
Smart Went Big…
First came the #1, which Smart stresses means “Hashtag 1” because the car is supposed to be a nod to social media trends. That car is an SUV that’s sized like a Mini Countryman and has as much as 422 HP in its Brabus version.
Then came the #3, which is one of those daft coupe SUV things, and it too brought 422 HP and AWD to the party.
Most recently, we’ve seen the #5, which looks vaguely like a Jeep Renegade and shockingly, punches out up to 638 HP. It’s the fastest factory-built Smart in the world by a wide margin.
Now, you’ll note that all of these are SUVs, which is pretty weird for this brand. Smart spent a little more than the first two decades of its life building cute city cars and a strange roadster. The company tried to make an SUV in the past, but just went back to making tiny cars. Now it makes nothing but SUVs.
Things were weird for the Fortwo in the final stages of its life. In December 2020, Daimler AG sold its Hambach, France, manufacturing facility (affectionately known as Smartville) to Ineos. When Ineos moved in, it continued to build Smart Fortwos under contract. However, Smart finally pulled the plug on that madness in March 2024, ending the Fortwo nameplate’s 26-year run.
Thankfully, it wasn’t long after when Smart confirmed that a replacement for the Fortwo was in the works. Smart has been pretty tight-lipped about the new car since then, really only saying that it’ll be built when Smart can make sure the new city car will be profitable. Now, thanks to Auto Express, we know a lot more.
…But Now Wants To Do Something Small
Auto Express spoke with Smart Europe CEO Dirk Adelmann, who spilled some crucial details about the new car. First, Auto Express notes that Adelmann says: “The A-segment is, for us, very interesting, because it is growing.” As I said, the city car segment has been sinking over the past few years, but Smart sees growth here.
Auto Express then spoke to Smart’s head of design, Kai Sieber, who said “The ForTwo is the core of our brand. It’s still our very clear intention to bring it back into the range.” Then, the designer went on to note that a new Fortwo won’t be chasing the latest neo-retro design trend:
“But if we come back with a vehicle that is significantly smaller in size than #1 and #3, then we will make sure it’s a true Smart. That doesn’t have to be retro; Smart doesn’t usually do retro – we are looking at what’s next,” he said.
Given the separation Smart has created between the visually similar #1 and #3, and the new, boxier #5, we expect the firm’s designers to take the new city car in a different direction stylistically.
That said, there are certain non-negotiables, according to Adelmann: “We will definitely have some Smart-family elements,” he told us. “Like frameless doors or the space concept; we’ll put the wheels in the corners. That we will keep, if we go in that direction.”
There really hasn’t been any real indication of what this car could look like. The only sketch shown to the public thus far has been an easter egg contained in a social media post published by Sieber in October 2024:
View this post on Instagram
Said basic sketch showed what’s more or less the third-generation city car’s shape (above and below). So, if Smart keeps with this, that means the new Fortwo will be a two-box design.
The really big reveal from Adelmann is that Smart and Geely will need to make a new platform for the new car. This suggests that the existing EV platform underneath Smart’s SUVs may not scale to a size as small as a Fortwo. What we do know is that the next Smart will be all-electric and that the range won’t be what the old electric Fortwo had. Smart is well aware that the old Fortwo couldn’t even go 100 miles on a charge on the WLTP cycle.
Adelmann expects the new car to be premium and sell for around £20,000 (about $25,790) by the end of this decade. Smart hasn’t confirmed a name for this new car yet, but the choice seems obvious. Thus far, Smart has named its new cars the #1, #3, and #5, skipping #2 and #4. Logically, the #2 would be the new Fortwo while the #4 would be the new Forfour.
But, as Smart has now said a couple of times, this car isn’t going to be a reality until the firm can figure out how to make money from it. For now, Smart says we could see more sketches over the next 12 to 18 months, and then a concept car would come later. So, we still have a lot of time to wait.
Sadly, Smart still hasn’t made any indications of a desire to return to the United States. In the past, it didn’t seem to make much sense, as I bet those new SUVs could have done well here. However, current tariffs mean it would be almost impossible for the company to make any money on its products. Either way, Smart seems to think there’s still life left in the city car segment and wants to rule it. Will Smart make the world fall in love with city cars again? I suppose we’ll have to wait until the end of the decade to find out.
Did the Smart fail because it was too small, or because it was too big and expensive, and did not offer enough for its size?
Europe has the quadricycle category, e.g., the Citroën Ami and variants, Japan of course has the kei-jidōsha category that puts a whole family minivan in the footprint of a Smart, and China, Smart’s new home, has the wéixíng chē category. And then the US has a lot of people riding dirty in side-by-sides and golf carts or managing to register them (sometimes tied to the formal low-speed vehicle framework).
Sure a lot of those vehicles are not as safe as the Smart and cannot handle highway speeds as well as the Smart, but that may not be the remit.
They could always market them with Little Big Supply lift kits installed and sell them as street legal side-by-side vehicles for city and trails. I’m surprised Mercedes hasn’t done that lift with one of her 7(!) Smarts over the years.
In the early 2000s someone was talking about importing OKA cars from Eastern Europe (maybe?)
Anyone know what happened?
If Ford ever comes out with their mythical 25k economy car I have a feeling all anything Smart makes will be in direct competition. Smaller size doesn’t pull as hard as dollars.
If anything, I welcome this to drive down the prices of the older Smarts and Scion iQs, who have held value annoyingly well as there just isn’t anything newer that’s remotely like them to replace them with.
I don’t need a city car, I need a suburban car, big enough for four people and a week’s worth of groceries, and I Want it to cost 15K
I also want a pony, and an ice cream cone.
New Nissan Sentras are pushing $15k at some dealerships right now. If those are all of your boxes it does those tasks just fine. Drive it nice and the CVT might last you awhile.
Honestly if something catistrophic happened to my two Civics and I could only buy new tomorrow, this would probably be the play. I’d be sad about it though.
I had a Smart Roadster as my home screen, until I replaced it with an SLK. The smart didn’t have very good MPG either. I think the diesel should have made it here.
They were never going to make fetch happen. Its hard to get people to pay more for less.
So the lightest car in the US in 2025 is the Miata at around 2300 lbs. And the smallest would probably be the 500e, if you go by length. Neither are really all that small. Heck, the 500e fits 4 people uncomfortably. I’ll still be surprised if we see Smart in the US again though.
Idea:
1. Buy a 2025 Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel
2. Remove wheels
3. Replace each wheel with Smart car (don’t forget to throw a fifth one in the bed as a spare)
Result:
Possibly the only way to sell Smarts in America. For the clicks.
I always thought smart had a problem at least in the us as being a bit too premium priced. Them being made and sold by Mercedes also scared alot of people off. I had hope Geely would figure out how to do something with them. But Geely struggles with with same issues with the brands they have bought. I think there is room in the market for micro BEVs especially at a ecobox price. Realistically neither Geely or Mercedes would cannibalize any of their sales. They could do a joint plant like Toyota did with Mazda in Alabama. Either in Alabama or South Carolina.
Wasn’t the problem the first time around was you could spend $30k for a smart, or $24k and get a Prius with seating for 5, a sizeable luggage area, and better fuel economy?
In any areas where parking and maneuvering a Prius wasn’t noticeably more challenging than with a ForTwo, which is basically the entire US and it’s overseas territories and freely associated states
Smart was like $15k, but yes, that put it up against a lot of subcompacts that had a back seat and unless you cared about the marginally nicer interior or parking convenience above all, it was a hard sell for most people.
I think something drastic would have to change in the economic climate for even a single city car model to be a viable business move, let alone a range of them. There’s just no demand. Fortunately, there’s no threat of global economic upheaval coming that we can see.
Also, #2 is a shitty name.
The smart “ED” was, arguably, a far far worse name than #2.
Oh yes, that would be so nice with a new small car craze, like around 2008 with the Aygo, Up, Panda, Spark, Splash and ala those sweet small ones (all 4-5 seaters)
City cars are useful and potentially fun but a small car costs as much to make,as a big car but has to sell for less. Also Smarts are a little too small. I have a city car, but mine is a Fiat 500, and the extra meter of length gives me a full back seat, a front engine that’s easier to service and good handling. The ability to get more utility for the same price, or sometimes cheaper has always been against Smart.
I want a low-frills “city”-sized ultra-efficient sports car coupe with a crapload of power, and either RWD or AWD. Something a bit smaller than a Smart Roadster(about the same length, but lower ad more narrow), weighing under 2,000 lbs, CdA value under 0.3 m^2, and no less than 300 horsepower under the hood(the more the merrier, as long as mechanical reliability and component longevity is maintained). The only extraneous features it needs are roll-up windows(as opposed to no widows) and a place to plug in something for music. No nannys, no touch screens, no power-anything, the most basic interior possible, if ICE or diesel give a basic 4 or 5-speed manual transmission with a very long-legged final drive ratio and if EV keep it single speed, all to help keep the manufacturing and parts cost down. This should be an inexpensive, mechanically-solid, entry level car that stands out with the looks of a sexy retro exotic(eg. Ferrari 250GTO, Jaguar D-Type, Shelby Daytona Coupe, except smaller and more slippery).
I bet if someone mass produced such a thing to get the cost under $25k, and then advertised it, with no guaranteed market beforehand, the buyers would materialize not knowing they needed such a thing in their life due to the sheer value for money proposition entailed from a performance and operating cost standpoint, it would have no competition, but then run the hazard of cannibalizing sales from products that cost 2-10x as much.
But that is what “cheap and cheerful” is all about. For all of the sacrifices made to get “cheap”, you get something in return so that the product is “cheerful”. It will be a “penalty box”, but for all the right reasons. No just a competent track weapon, but possibly the most economical A to B commuter available at the same time, at least when the operator keeps their foot out of it.
It’s a stretch, I know, I know, but you’re almost describing a used 987.1 base Cayman. Ok, yeah it’s a long shot. But if it’s any consolation, I’ve got one with nearly 170k on it and it’s very reliable. I daily and street park it in San Francisco.
The Cayman is much larger than what I’m describing.
Try a Cayman at 2/3 to 3/4 scale, with all of the bells and whistles stripped out, more aero streamlining at the expense of looks, very cramped passenger space, without downsizing the engine, then mass produced not to be an “exclusive” toy for the well off and instead marketed as an entry level/”economy” car, made out of widely/cheaply available components instead of Porsche parts, and then actually deliver on the economy part by virtue of platform efficiency, reparability, and reliability. A sort of Kei car that is unrestricted by Japanese law and is meant to be functional and fast instead of cute.
Something like this made out of GM parts bin components would be amazing. The Pontiac Solstice could have been this car if it wasn’t so damned bloated and over-styled.
Man, we gotta get you into product planning STAT
The only flaw with your wonderful plan is backwards safety and emissions laws, as always. I really wish such cars could actually be sold nowadays.
I love the idea of a city car as a commuter/3rd car. They just are over priced.
They’ve absolutely got an uphill battle, between the proliferation of rideshare since their prime, and just about any city where a city car starts to make sense is getting increasingly hostile to any sort of car.
Yesss! I love my ‘12 Fortwo. It’s really handy – easy to use in the city, genuinely fun for what it is. I’ve considered swapping it for a 2016+, if I stumble across one in Passion trim for the right price.
They’re genuinely neat little cars!
How’s been the reliability/parts availability of yours?
Can’t speak for Kelvin, but most of the seven Smarts I’ve ever owned (six currently) have been pretty reliable. They all have some common and annoying issues. The transmission programming sometimes gets wonky, and the 451s (2008 to 2015 in America) have roofs that do not age well, but they’re generally reliable.
The problematic ones are the first-generation 450s (1998 to 2007). They have lots of really stupid ways to die. In the early days, it was common for their engines to need rebuilds every 60,000 miles. Then lots of folks ran into some soldering/wiring issues with their SAM units. Roadsters weren’t super reliable when they were new, but we didn’t get those in America, either. Nowadays, I reckon the biggest threat is rust, because those older cars had a knack for collecting debris and salt into little nooks and crannies.
The only city car I want in the US is the Microlino, and I want one bad:
Microlino Car — Discover the Microlino
I think that what hurt the new Forfour in Europe was that there was no sense in getting one over the Twingo III – outside of wanting it not to have a Renault badge, for about 3k€ more.
Both these cars were in my opinion quite good city cars.