Smart Forspeed Concept - and the electric bike and scooter that will make production
Smart are taking a 40bhp electric roadster to Geneva – the Smart Forspeed Concept – which won’t make production but is a glimpse of the next Smart Fortwo.
You’ve got to wonder if Smart is just a game for Mercedes. A bit like Maybach, except they keep churning out endless cars and concepts and editions and sales seem to go nowhere, instead of the Maybach way of keeping the same cars for a decade – and sales go nowhere.
Last year in the UK Smart sales were down nearly 9% at a time you would expect sales of eco-focused small cars to boom. Oh, well. Maybe churning out a small electric concept and calling it ‘Forspeed’ will bring the punters running?
The Smart Forspeed Concept is an electric ‘Roadster’, although its dumpy design wouldn’t make most people think ‘Roadster’. Noddy, maybe.
Powered by a rear-mounted 40bhp electric motor (which has a 7bhp overboost function), the Forspeed is said to have an 84 mile range – which means 35 miles away from home, in the real world – and a top speed of 75mph.
But the Smart Forspeed will never see the real world – this is just a concept with lots of concept-y bits. It gets a very expensive gloss finish and solar cells in the wind deflectors, which are supposed to power the car’s onboard electrics.
Inside is concept-y too with instrument binnacles in front of the driver and passenger – or co-pilot, as Smart say (if that doesn’t put you off, nothing will). There are leather straps for the door-pulls and exposed mounting bolts in the door panels and centre console.
Although the Smart Forspeed won’t go in to production, you can take a fair punt that its design is a taste of the next generation Smart Fortwo.
The Smart Forspeed will be joined at Geneva by an electric scooter and an electric bicycle which will see production at some point on the next couple of years.
More toys for Mercedes
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