The modern city car has developed a curious fear of cities. It grows wider, taller and heavier, then arrives at a multi-storey car park behaving like a sofa being pushed through a letterbox. The Smart #2 proposes a more radical solution: be small.
Properly small, too. Smart says its new electric two-seater will measure less than three metres long, placing it back in the territory that made the original Fortwo brilliant. That alone deserves a cheer. Britain does not need another electric SUV claiming to be urban because its paint colour sounds like a coffee order.
Small dimensions, surprisingly serious hardware
The #2 sits on a purpose-built Electric Compact Architecture rather than a shortened platform borrowed from a larger car. A 35.8kWh battery using CATL cells is tucked into that tiny footprint, with Smart targeting 290km of combined WLTP range — roughly 180 miles — and a 10-to-80 per cent DC charge in 20 minutes.
Those figures are preliminary, but the philosophy is right. A city car does not need a battery the size of a garden shed simply to win a range argument. A modest pack saves space and mass, while quick charging makes the occasional longer journey less of a diary-management exercise. If Smart can deliver those numbers in the production car, the #2 should feel useful beyond the ring road without hauling around hundreds of kilos of unused ambition.
Then comes the part that makes an enthusiast sit forward. The #2 is rear-wheel drive, has an even 50:50 weight distribution and uses five-link independent rear suspension. Smart says it is the only car in its segment with that rear-suspension layout. It will also wear narrower tyres at the front than at the rear, while its kerb-to-kerb turning circle is a wonderfully cheeky 6.95 metres.
Is five-link suspension extravagant in something designed to squeeze between a delivery van and a wheelie bin? Possibly. But small cars deserve thoughtful engineering precisely because their working environment is so demanding. Broken tarmac, tight corners, abrupt direction changes and speed humps are not edge cases in town; they are the syllabus. A tiny car that feels stable and composed has more value than one with another inch of touchscreen.
Safety cannot be the small print
Compact cars face an awkward sales problem: buyers love the easy parking but worry about being the smallest object in a sea of crossovers. Smart’s answer is the Tridion Cell Evo, a new version of the safety structure that became a visual signature of the original Fortwo. The company says it has revised chassis rigidity and structural stress points while testing the car on European roads and motorways.
That does not make the #2 invincible, nor should anybody treat a press release as a crash-test result. The car is still going through EU homologation, and official figures will follow. Yet Smart is right to make the structure part of the story. A small car should not apologise for occupying less road; it should prove that compact packaging and serious protection can coexist.
There is heritage here without the usual mothballs. More than two million earlier Smart cars remain in use, according to the company. Their appeal was not just cuteness. They solved a recognisable problem with unusual proportions, two seats and wheels pushed towards the corners. The #2 keeps that basic idea, then adds an electric platform designed around it rather than pretending yesterday’s petrol-car packaging never happened.
The price must remain as compact as the car
Smart now describes itself as a premium EV brand, which is where enthusiasm should acquire a raised eyebrow. Premium materials and clever engineering are welcome; premium pricing can turn a useful city tool into an expensive second-car toy. The #2 needs to be attainable enough for people who actually battle kerbs, parking permits and narrow terraces, not merely charming enough to decorate a hotel lobby.
Two seats will also divide opinion. Families will look elsewhere, as they should. But forcing every small car to carry five people produces larger cars that spend most journeys carrying one. The #2 has the courage to specialise. That is increasingly rare, and it is exactly why the project feels more interesting than another cautiously styled crossover.
Smart will reveal the production car at the Paris Motor Show on 12 October. We still need final range, charging data, prices and the uncamouflaged design before declaring victory. The ingredients, though, suggest somebody remembered what the badge is for: using intelligence to make a car smaller, rather than using software to make a large car seem clever.
If the finished #2 keeps its dimensions tight and its price sensible, Smart will have done more than revive the Fortwo. It will have reminded the industry that progress does not always need a bigger parking space.
Sources
- Auto Express: new Smart #2 discovery report
- Smart Newsroom: Smart #2 Tridion Cell Evo and ECA specifications
- Smart Newsroom: Smart #2 interior concept and ECA platform
- Smart Newsroom: Concept #2 debut
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