Smart's future depends upon China
- The Daimler and Geely groups have announced the creation of a 50/50% owned JV between the two manufacturers to develop the Smart brand in China. This development will involve the transfer in 2022 of the Smart Fortwo's production from the French Hambach plant to a Chinese plant owned by Geely. The new generation of the Fortwo will be launched at the same time. It will be 100% electric. Geely believes that the sales potential of electric cars, even small cars, is much greater in China than in Europe, which explains the transfer of Smart production.
- However, the future of the French Hambach plant will be ensured by the manufacture of various electric models of the Mercedes brand (and no longer the Smart brand), which should be launched from 2021 onwards.
- However, the future of the Smart Forfour currently produced in the Slovenian Novo Mesto plant, alongside the Renault Twingo, is not defined, and this could put an end to the agreement between Renault and Mercedes in the small car sector.
- Scheduled for a production of 250,000 units per year, the Smart Fortwo has never exceeded 150,000 units per year, most of which are sold in Europe. As for the Forfour version, it has never exceeded 50,000 units per year, whereas the manufacturer expected twice as many. Smart's worldwide sales peak was reached in 2016 with 144,000 units. In 2017, Smart sales fell to 136,000 units, then 130,000 units in 2018. In China, Smart sales went from 19,286 units in 2016 to 23,381 units in 2017 to 21,229 units in 2018, all imported from Europe.
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