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2020 smart EQ ForTwo, EQ ForFour To Premiere At Frankfurt Motor Show

The year 2020 presents a new challenge for smart, which is already hurting from a financial standpoint because the sales are nowhere near the break-even point. To the point, smart will become the first automaker in the world to have switched its entire portfolio from internal combustion to electric drive.
2020 smart EQ ForFour 23 photos
Photo: smart
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Founded in 1994 by Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, the first car to bear the smart nameplate rolled out in 1998. Fast-forward to 2018, and smart sales were 4.6 percent down on the previous year. 128,802 deliveries worldwide can hardly be called business in this day and age...

2018 was also the first year of availability of all three EQ models, and 2020 will see the Boblin-based Böblingen transition to EVs. To mark the occasion, smart released the Final Collector’s Edition centered around the idea of “21 years of smart, 21 vehicles, 21 years always a step ahead.” Yeah, right…

Next month at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, the company will roll out the facelifted EQ ForTwo and EQ ForFour with a few upgrades to reflect the automaker’s change to an all-electric brand. Both models feature a “characteristically reduced and grown-up design,” but if you look closer, smart has taken inspiration from the ForEase series of concepts for the exterior and lighting.

LED headlamps, an oversized grille integrated with an air vent, and circular fog lights are also visible in the teasers. Not much is known about the interior of the ForTwo and ForFour, but chances are that smart will level up on the build quality and infotainment system’s software.

The biggest question is, what’ll happen under the skin? The EQ lineup relies on a 17.6-kWh battery that’s too small in comparison to the subcompact Renault Zoe and compact Volkswagen ID.3, which is why energy density could be one of the areas where upgrades will be made. The electric motor, meanwhile, is designed and integrated so that it drives the rear wheels with 82 PS (80 horsepower) and 160 Nm (118 pound-feet) of torque.

Range, you’re wondering? smart quotes up to 160 kilometers for the EQ ForTwo and 155 kilometers for the EQ ForFour, which is too little even for the daily trip to work and back home. All the details we don’t know at the moment will be made public on September 10th on the first day of the Frankfurt Motor Show, so here’s hope that smart won’t call it quits with another disappointment in a long run of letdowns.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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