2016 Smart Fortwo Passion on 2040-cars

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Smart Electric Drive ad offers blockbuster treatment for tiny car

Drama, suspense, romance, horror - just about everything you might want from a great big-budget flick has been packed into this minute-long masterpiece from Smart (or its ad agency, anyway).
Smart has been pushing its 2013 ForTwo fairly aggressively over recent weeks, debuting new series of commercials aimed at changing minds about the diminutive two-seater. This spot for the upcoming ForTwo Electric Drive is no different, but it may just be the best of the bunch.
Watch all the way through - it's worth it.

Smart will finally stop resisting the crossover's allure in 2022

For years, Smart stood on the sidelines as rivals turned a blind eye to tradition and jumped in the highly lucrative crossover segment. The company is done watching; it's allegedly preparing its own high-riding model for 2022. Smart is aware that its entry into crossover territory is drenched in substantial irony. It was founded to give motorists a right-sized alternative to big cars. That's where the money is, however, and co-owners Daimler and Geely can't justify their investments into the brand if they don't see a return. Viewed in this light, putting a Smart on stilts seems as inevitable as the Chevrolet Impala's demise after 10 generations and millions sold. Don't expect Smart to put its name on a Cadillac Escalade-sized SUV. Italian website Motori Online learned the yet-unnamed model will stretch about 160 inches long, a figure that, if accurate, will make it approximately as big as a four-door Mini Hardtop and a full 54 inches longer than the tiny ForTwo no longer sold in the United States. It will ride on a platform developed specifically for it, likely with input from Geely. The Chinese brand purchased half of Smart in 2019; it also owns controlling stakes in Volvo, Lotus and Polestar, among others. Power will come from an electric drivetrain built around a 78-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Motori Online expects its maximum driving range will check in at about 250 miles. Additional technical details (like whether it will be front-, rear-, or all-wheel drive) haven't been released yet. All three configurations are possible, however. Another point with a big question mark hovering over it is what Smart's definition of a crossover looks like. It might arrive as merely a hatchback on stilts with plastic cladding over the wheel arches, a solution that would satisfy the greatest number of motorists. Or, the company could take a more creative approach to entering the segment by launching something along the lines of the ForStars concept (pictured) introduced in 2012. What's certain is that motorists hoping for a pocket-sized car with Jeep Wrangler-like off-roading skills will be sorely disappointed. Smart's upcoming crossover will be designed primarily for urban use, not for the Rubicon Trail. The soft-roader will reportedly make its debut by the end of 2022, meaning it could go on sale in early 2023.

Aging Smart Fortwo ED to be sold alongside newer ICE model

The biggest thing to happen to the tiny Smart Fortwo in years is the redesign that we followed in the second half of 2014. While the internal combustion version of the new Fortwo will arrive in in the US later this year, we will have to wait "approximately a year after that" for the the EV version to come here. Mark Webster, the general manager of Smart USA, spoke to AutoblogGreen at the Detroit Auto Show this week, and said that the plug-in version of the 453 (Smart's internal code for the new ForTwo, which replaces the 451) will not be available in the US until late 2016 or perhaps even early 2017. What the means is that for around a year, Smart will sell the new gas-powered Fortwo next to old ED models on the same lot. While this is going to make the plug-in look a bit outdated, at least when the new ED goes on sale, it will come with a similar array of personalization and customization options as the current model does, Webster said. Any information beyond that is something we'll just have to sit and wait for. "Right now, we're not revealing too many statistics of the new cars becasue we're focusing on the EVs we have," he said, adding that, "We sold over 2,000 of these EVs last year and 921 in 2013. So we're doing very well." Smart sold 2,594 Fortwo EDs in the US last year. Despite this delay in getting the new electric Fortwo to market, Webster said that Daimler is very committed to EVs, and he personally also handles the B-Class Electric. "We have other models we're working on down the road that are dedicated EVs," he said, without going into further detail. Check out our review of the new ICE Fortwo here. Featured Gallery Smart Fortwo Electric Drive Vehicles: Detroit 2015 View 14 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2015 Sebastian Blanco / AOL Green Detroit Auto Show smart Electric