- The Smart Fortwo, established in 1998, has launched in a trend for urban chic and "fashionable" city cars (European segment A)with its two seaters, its small size, its customization and its high price (compared to its size ).

- Originally scheduled for a production of 200,000 units per year (on the French site of Hambach), the Smart Fortwo saw its objectives diminished by 50,000 units per year towards 2001-2002, in other words to 150,000 units per year.

- The model was not far from achieving this second objective in 2008 (140 000 units), partly tanks to its launch on the US market. Since 2010, the Fortwo has maintained its sales at 100,000 units per year.

- The Smart Forfour(European segment B) which should have broaden the Smart range ( 2004 onwards) was a commercial failure, because this model lost the uniqueness of the Fortwo while entering in a extremely competitive market (European segment B cars) with lower prices or with a stronger image.

- The Fortwo has seen in recent years the arrival of new competitors making the most of the trend for "fashionable" city cars:

§The European segment A, micro and city cars with the Toyota IQ (a failure for now ) and the Fiat 500.

§The European segment B, with the BMW Mini, the Citroën DS3 and more recently the Audi.