The Smart Car is dead. At least, in America and Canada, anyway.
If you want a small, electric city car, you probably don’t immediately think of the Smart EQ ForTwo. You probably think of the Chevy Bolt, the Nissan Leaf, or if you live in one of those cities that still manages to have 4-lane streets that aren’t jammed to Hell and gone every morning, a Tesla Model 3. All these vehicles come with a range greater than 100 miles and are capable of moving at highway speeds when needed.
Some of them even cost the same as the Smart EQ ForTwo, which makes you wonder why anyone would ever want to buy a ForTwo over any of the other electric options.
That logic seems to have resulted in the Smart Car’s death in North America. According to Motor Trend, Mercedes-Benz told their dealers that no 2020 Smart Car would be forthcoming and that after this year, the ForTwo would drive off to that big parking lot in the sky.
“After much careful consideration, Smart will discontinue its battery-electric smart EQ ForTwo model in the U.S. and Canadian markets at the conclusion of 2019,” said Smart spokesperson Rob Moran in a statement. “A number of factors, including a declining micro-car market in the U.S. and Canada, combined with high homologation costs for a low-volume model are central to this decision.”
Generally, this decision all has to do with the numbers. Precisely 1,276 ForTwos were sold in the US last year, down almost 60% from the year before. Sales are so bad that many Mercedes dealers in the US have simply stopped offering the ForTwo as a product.
Global sales are still fairly strong at 128,802 units moved last year. Mercedes is going to refocus Smart’s branding to China where microcars are a vastly more popular vehicle than in North America. Mercedes has recently teamed up with Geely Automotive to start selling the vehicle in China from a dedicated manufacturing plant located in the country.