Words: Richard Edwards
Published 11 August 2026
The Smart Fortwo is coming back as an EV, and the production version has now broken cover. Images and specifications for the final Smart #2 have surfaced in Chinese regulatory filings, weeks ahead of the two-seater’s planned world premiere at the Paris Motor Show in October.
Smart has been drip-feeding the #2 for months. The Concept #2 debuted in April before a European showing in Rome in June, but the filing with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is the first look at the actual showroom car, wearing production lights, bumpers and trim. It confirms the #2 as a genuine micro EV in the mould of the original city car, which was discontinued in 2024 after three generations. At 2751mm or 2764mm long depending on configuration, 1669mm wide and 1555mm tall on an 1875mm wheelbase, it is comfortably the smallest car in Smart’s modern line-up, and the first not shaped like a compact SUV.
Smart, the 50/50 joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, will build the #2 at Geely’s Zhejiang Haoqing plant on a dedicated Electric Compact Architecture, complete with a redeveloped version of the contrast-colour tridion safety cell that defined the original. Styling is the work of the Mercedes-Benz global design team.
A rear-mounted 60kW motor from Infimotion drives the rear wheels, with a top speed of 140km/h and a kerb weight of 1130kg. The battery is a 35.7kWh LFP pack using CATL cells, good for a claimed 300km WLTP range, with a 10 to 80% charge in under 20 minutes and vehicle-to-load capability built in.
That range is the transformation: the last electric Fortwo managed less than 100km in real-world terms, one reason it remained a niche proposition. The new car promises roughly triple that from a footprint that still fits the tightest city parks.
The filing’s options list points to broad personalisation, with black, body-coloured or hardtop roofs, two wheel-and-tyre sizes, and various trim and lighting choices. Radars and cameras can be deleted on basic versions.
Teased in paint first
The filing gazumps Smart’s own carefully staged reveal. The brand has been teasing the #2 through a global mural campaign, commissioning street artists to paint the car onto walls in Melbourne, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, with Berlin’s East Side Gallery and Paris still to come as what Smart calls the artistic prelude to the premiere. The Melbourne mural, by artist Georgia Laurie, is as close as the campaign gets to New Zealand.
“The smart #2 is the evolution of a revolution,” says Smart global chief marketing officer Kang Yi. “We designed this vehicle to bring playfulness, premium sophistication, and effortless agility back to the modern urban jungle.”
The street art angle is on-brand in the most literal sense: the company’s name began as an abbreviation of Swatch, Mercedes and art.
The #2 will be sold in China and Europe, with European pricing expected to start below €22,500, around $44,000 at current exchange rates before any local adjustments, though Chinese-built EVs attract the European Union’s countervailing tariffs. European sales point towards right-hand drive production for the UK, which would clear the main hurdle for markets like ours.
There is no New Zealand confirmation, but the pieces are in place: Smart returned here under Auto Distributors NZ, part of the Armstrong’s group, with the #1 and #3 SUVs, since joined by the larger #5. Whether a sub-2.8-metre two-seater can find a market at likely mid-$40,000s money is another question, though it did not stop the original Fortwo carving out a loyal, if small, local following.
Deliveries begin in 2027 following the Paris debut.
