• The all-new Smart #2 will be produced in China and launched in China, Europe, and other overseas markets.
• The two-door, two-seat city car will be upgrade from the iconic first-generation Smart ForTwo.

Smart, the joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, will launch a two-seat Smart #2 mini electric vehicle (EV) next year as the successor to its ForTwo model.

The all-new Smart #2 will be launched in China, Europe, and other overseas markets, with its debut scheduled for late 2026, the company announced today.

The model will be an all-new two-door, two-seat urban vehicle, marking Smart's entry into the compact car segment, it said.

As an ultra-compact A-class vehicle, the Smart #2 will represent an iterative upgrade from the iconic first-generation Smart ForTwo.

Designed by the Mercedes-Benz design team, the vehicle will be built on a new architecture developed by Smart's R&D team specifically for ultra-compact models, the company stated.

Equipped with class-leading new technological solutions, the Smart #2 is currently in its final design and development phase and is planned for production in China, Smart announced.

The Smart #2 will further enrich the Smart brand's product portfolio, eventually forming a new lineup alongside the Smart #1, #3, and #5, the company said.

Developing an ultra-compact vehicle on an all-new pure-electric architecture is far more complex than building mid-to-large-sized cars, but Smart is now fully prepared, said Smart global CEO Tong Xiangbei.

The first-generation Smart ForTwo two-seater city car debuted in 1998 and has sold over 2 million units to date.

Twenty-seven years ago, the original Smart ForTwo became an iconic model for the brand and the entire industry and the new Smart #2 will breathe new life into Smart's two-seater model, said Zhang Mingxia, the brand's global chief marketing officer.

Launched in 1998, the Smart brand targeted the premium compact car segment as a Mercedes-Benz solution for urban mobility in megacities.

On January 8, 2020, Mercedes-Benz and Geely established a new joint venture under the Smart brand, headquartered in Ningbo, Zhejiang, to accelerate the transition to electrification.

As part of their agreement, Mercedes-Benz designers create Smart vehicles while Geely engineers them.

Current Smart models sold in the Chinese mainland include the Smart #1, Smart #3, and Smart #5, priced between RMB 154,900 ($21,700) and RMB 368,000.

($1 = RMB 7.1395)