A Smart SUV could be back on the cards, Auto Express has learnt. The Mercedes-owned city car company previously revealed plans to launch an SUV-style vehicle more than 10 years ago, but the project was canned in 2005.
Now, however, the chic Smart range could grow to offer an SUV-style Smart car based on the ForFour to take advantage of the worldwide boom in SUVs and crossovers.
Speaking to Auto Express at the Shanghai Motor Show, head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Dr. Dieter Zetsche said that the German giant is eyeing up the possibility of expanding into the fashionable sector. But there won’t be a pumped-up ForFour in the immediate future, due to packaging issues of the car’s rear-engined, rear-wheel drive layout.
“Our objective at this moment in time is to get to the next stage of success with the portfolio,” he told us. “There are certain limitations to this very convincing, technical concept which allows you to have a very compact vehicle for the range expansion. But if we were to go for any expansion with the Smart family, then the SUV segment would definitely be one to go into.”
Zetsche was speaking on the day Smart’s parent company revealed the GLC Coupe concept – a car which will rival the BMW X4 in the niche coupe SUV sector. With Mercedes planning on offering a wide spectrum of SUVs in its product range – from the A-Class-based GLA right up to the large Range Rover-rivaling GLS – it’s obvious the company will seek new ways of adding to that SUV arsenal by looking at its sub-brands.
However, for the time being, Smart will be concentrating on adding value to its core range of ForTwo and ForFour. The new, third-generation ForTwo was launched at the 2015 Shanghai Motor Show as the Asian market is key for the city car brand’s worldwide growth, and the Frankfurt Motor Show will see the racy ForTwo Brabus debuted. Next year will also see the launch of the all-electric versions of the ForTwo and ForFour.
The last time Smart investigated the SUV sector was with the ForMore in 2005. But, along with the Roadster and Coupe Roadster, the ForMore project was cancelled due to Smart’s perilous financial situation.
Get more of the latest news from the Shanghai Motor Show 2015 here.