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2020 smart EQ Goes Live In Frankfurt, 17.6 kWh Will Have To Suffice

smart has seen better days, and the higher-ups at Daimler AG hope the mid-cycle refresh of the fortwo and forfour will pay off for at least a couple of years. The truth of the matter is, however, that an electric vehicle with a 17.6-kWh battery is anything but competitive in this day and age.
2020 smart EQ facelift 65 photos
Photo: Stefan Baldauf / Guido ten Brink
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Another problem with the smart cars presented at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show is the size. Microcars are no longer popular with European customers either, and that should’ve been obvious to smart since eons ago. Unless the Böblingen-based company pours resources into the development of a crossover, smart could be a thing of the past by the middle of the 2020s.

Moving on, both the fortwo and fourfour at the IAA 2019 were showcased in as first editions. The cleverly named edition 1 might be visually appealing, but on the downside, the aesthetic changes don’t bring anything new to the electromobility part of the deal. It’s the same car as the regular fortwo or forfour, meaning that range is limited to 169 kilometers (NEDC).

That’s right, ladies and gents; even though every single automaker has switched to the WLTP, smart continues to give the NEDC figures out of pettiness. Pettiness for not making a larger floor to accommodate a larger battery, translating to more range. Considering that NEDC-c values are 25 percent higher on average than the Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure, it’s easy to tell that smart can’t compete with anyone right now.

Let’s take two of the smallest EVs on sale in Europe right now as our examples. The Opel Corsa-e and Renault Zoe are both subcompact hatchbacks, packing 50 and 52 kWh from their lithium-ion batteries. The German and French contenders promise up to 330 and 390 kilometers, respectively, as per the WLTP. Given that both automakers are selling these babies for reasonable sums of hard-earned euros, it would be pretty foolish to choose the smart.

On an ending note, “switching of the entire product range to all-electric powertrains marks the start of a new chapter in the story of the smart brand.” Those are the words of Daniel Lescow, head of brand and product management, and he did not go any further into the automaker’s plans for the future.
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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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