After much speculating about Smart's future, doubts were allayed after the Daimler AG and Geely have announced the creation of a 50-50 joint venture which should be completed by the end of 2019 and aims to develop, engineer and design the brand's future models, making the next Smart… Chinese.
With the birth of this joint-venture, Smart sees its future assured, having already defined that the next generation of the brand's models, to appear in 2022, should be designed by Mercedes-Benz Design, using Geely's engineering centers. As for production, this will be done in China.
Although production of the next Smart will take place in China, until 2022 Daimler will continue to produce the current generation of Smart vehicles at its factories in Hambach, France ( Smart EQ fortwo ) and Novo Mesto, Slovenia (Smart EQ forfour).
New models on the way
With the transfer of production of Smart models to China, Mercedes-Benz announced that the French factory in Hambach will dedicate itself to the production of a Mercedes-Benz compact electric vehicle signed by the EQ brand. At the same time, the joint venture's vehicle development program foresees the creation of a Smart for the B-segment.
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For Li Shufu, president of Geely — Volvo and Lotus, among others, are already part of its growing empire — the joint venture now presented will allow “to boost the introduction of personalized premium electric products”. Given this union between Daimler and Geely for the development of Smart futures, only one thing remains to be seen: what will happen to the “brother” of the current Smart, the Renault Twingo.