Photo: smart
Last month, a rumor landed on the internet claiming smart will play their cards in the crossover segment with a rear-engine platform. Nothing unusual so far, except that story was denied by smart officials.
All the big guns in the industry are playing the crossover / SUV game, so why a carmaker like smart should just sit and watch? That's the argument fuelling the news that we'll see a crossover from smart in the upcoming years, but German officials tend to disagree.
If you remember, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche made a remark in April, during Auto Shanghai 2015, saying smart will take into account the idea of building a crossover if they decided to expand the brand's line-up.
Last month's speculation had to do with a potential smart SUV that would reach the market in 2018 with a similar appearance to the smart forstars prototype shown three years ago in Paris.
However, smart CEO Annette Winkler was clear that "we [smart] are not planning an SUV", according to Autonews. Nevertheless, she went on to add "but never say never". Should we read between the lines and presume smart is doing well from a financial point of view, and the magic SUV trick is not (yet) needed to boost income?
It could be, as the joint venture with Renault is considered to have created "enormous economies of scale", according to Winkler, cited by the same source. That can be directly put to the test by looking at smart's global sales performance. The brand's sales were up 29 percent to 50,835 through May, encouraged by an updated fortwo and the forfour.
If you remember, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche made a remark in April, during Auto Shanghai 2015, saying smart will take into account the idea of building a crossover if they decided to expand the brand's line-up.
Last month's speculation had to do with a potential smart SUV that would reach the market in 2018 with a similar appearance to the smart forstars prototype shown three years ago in Paris.
However, smart CEO Annette Winkler was clear that "we [smart] are not planning an SUV", according to Autonews. Nevertheless, she went on to add "but never say never". Should we read between the lines and presume smart is doing well from a financial point of view, and the magic SUV trick is not (yet) needed to boost income?
It could be, as the joint venture with Renault is considered to have created "enormous economies of scale", according to Winkler, cited by the same source. That can be directly put to the test by looking at smart's global sales performance. The brand's sales were up 29 percent to 50,835 through May, encouraged by an updated fortwo and the forfour.
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