Smart #2 concept previews new electric city car
New Smart #2 will be a successor to the tiny Smart ForTwo EQ, which was discontinued in 2024...
On sale Late 2026 Price from £20,000 (est)
With the Smart #2, Smart is going back to its roots – and that feels like a bit of a risk.
You see, while some reviewers have criticised recent Smarts for being the antithesis of everything the brand had come to represent, we’d argue this shift in direction was a great thing.
Yes, the tiny city cars that Smart used to specialise in were very distinctive. But they were also impractical, uncomfortable and generally impossible to recommend.
By contrast, the Smart #1 – the first of the new generation of Smarts – was so good we named it the Best Small Electric SUV on sale at our 2024 awards. Meanwhile, at our 2026 awards, the bigger Smart #5 won Best Family Electric SUV.
Still, it will be interesting to see if the brand can successfully distill this newfound excellence into a much smaller model. And small the #2 will clearly be.
The design sketches, which have just been revealed ahead of the unveiling of a #2 concept at this year’s Beijing motor show, depict a model with very similar proportions to the old Smart ForTwo – albeit with modern Smart detailing, such as triangular headlights.
Smart has also confirmed that the #2 will come in the same two-door, two-seat form as its predecessor and that, unsurprisingly, it will be a fully electric car.
Interestingly, though, while Chinese brand Geely has been responsible for the engineering of recent Smarts, it co-developed the underpinnings of the #2 with Mercedes; the two companies each own a 50% stake in Smart.
Few technical details have been revealed yet, but we do know that the #2 will be rear-wheel drive, which should contribute to an ultra-tight turning circle.
We'd also expect a considerably longer official range than the 84 miles you got with the old Fortwo EQ. And while pricing is still to be confirmed, a £20k starting point seems likely, because the #2 is entering an increasingly competitive small electric car market.
The Hyundai Inster and Renault 5 are two standout models that are already on sale, while the Honda Super-N and reborn Renault Twingo are due later this year.
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