Last Smart Fortwo rolls off the production line in Hambach

At the end of 2020, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would sell the Smart plant in Hambach to Ineos. The new owner continued to manufacture the Fortwo on behalf of Smart until recently, but will now only build its own combustion engine vehicles at the plant in future.

“As planned, production of the current two-seater smart EQ fortwo coupé and cabrio models will be phased out by the end of March 2024,” a company spokeswoman told Der Spiegel. The magazine writes that there had been “talk of a slightly later end for the car.”

The two-seater was initially designed as an electric car in the 1990s, but then launched as a combustion engine model. Millions of units were built, but it always remained a loss-making model. Mercedes incorporated the Smart brand into a joint venture with Geely back in 2019.

With the end of production of the Smart Fortwo – which has now actually become an electric model – Geely will build all future Smarts. The brand currently has the electric crossover #1 and the corresponding coupé #3 in its line-up, both of which only share a name with the original Smart.

smart-emotion.de, spiegel.de (both in German)