Smart is mulling a successor to the Forfour as it looks to justify the huge cost of creating the incoming #2’s new bespoke platform.
If it gets the green light, it will cap a huge overhaul of the Mercedes- and Geely-owned brand’s line-up, which will include the launch of the recently announced #2 city car next year, along with major updates to the #1 crossover and #3 coupé-crossover. They will join the #5 SUV flagship, deliveries of which are set to begin in the coming months.
Smart’s European CEO Dirk Adelmann told Autocar at the Munich motor show that while there are no concrete launch plans "yet" for a new ForFour, he hinted it is something the brand is looking at. The previous four-seat city car went out of production at the turn of the decade.
Like the #2 sibling, itself a successor to the popular Fortwo, a new ForFour will likely be designed and engineered for Europe, and use the same underpinnings.
Any design will follow that of the #2, which, while not yet revealed, “needed to look like a successor", said Adelmann.
While the #4 has not yet been green-lit, Adelmann said such a car is needed in order to justify the huge cost of creating the #2’s new bespoke platform. “We need the economies of scale,” he said. “The tricky part was to get it small enough for the #2; it’s much easier to expand slightly.”
Adelmann confirmed the #2's platform is likely to use a dual-motor set-up but wouldn’t confirm any other technical details, adding: “The wishlist features we gave to engineering was a very small turning cycle – the same as the last Fortwo – to make [the #2] really practical in city centres.”
In a first for Smart, the platform is being developed jointly by Geely in China and Mercedes in Europe, given that the car is built mainly with a focus on the European market. This differs from the #1, #3 and #5, which were all engineered by Geely but designed by Mercedes.
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Somebody must like the look,wouldn't be building them if they wasn't a market for them,yes it's no looker that's a given it's just some have a different idea of cool I guess.