The bell had already rung a year ago, but now there is official confirmation: the production of Smart "Fortwo", the two-seater, a dream cherished or realized especially by those who have parking problems for example in Rome, ended in March between changes in corporate strategy and the proliferation of other minicars.
"As planned, production of the current two-seater smart EQ fortwo coupé and cabrio models will end by the end of March 2024," a spokeswoman for Mercedes-Benz AG confirmed to ANSA. "Smart Automobile Co., Ltd" has "launched the first series models of the new generation of fully electric vehicles for the smart brand", the spokeswoman began this week, simply adding that "the assistance and supply of spare parts for customers of the smart EQ fortwo and forfour models will of course continue to be guaranteed."
With its only 270 centimeters long and 166 centimeters wide, the Fortwo was ideal for exploiting "impossible" parking spaces, those where any other car, even a small car, would not have entered even with numerous maneuvers: not even the " hole" of only two meters and a little more given that that type of Smart is sometimes even parked with the "nose out", protruding only slightly from the row of correctly positioned cars.
Although these are now also available in micro and minicars, the Fortwo was a forerunner. The model had also been a pioneer of zero-emission electric mobility, which it completely converted to in 2020: "already at the time of the first studies of a vehicle intended for urban traffic, in 1972, the concept was equipped with battery traction", recalls the website of the automotive manufacturer. "And Nicolas Hayek, a visionary and far-sighted mind, had also considered the idea of a smart with this type of zero-emission drive from the beginning and so, since 2007, every smart generation has offered a fully electric option", it adds .
A year ago the authoritative German specialist magazine "Auto Motor sport" explained the end of production with the reorientation of the Smart brand, which in the future will be based on a collaboration between Mercedes and the Chinese car manufacturer Geely. Furthermore, the Smart Forfour, the compact sedan built in Slovenia together with Renault as a sister model to the E-Twingo, had already been discontinued in 2021.
The ex-Daimler had also sold the French Smart plant in Hambach to the British off-road vehicle manufacturer Ineos in 2021, which started production of the Grenadier there from July 2022, the magazine recalled, predicting that the construction of the Smart Fortwo at the Hambach plant would end at the "half" of the year, date then brought forward to March as specified by the spokeswoman in confirmation of rumors circulated last month.
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