It was in 1997 that the Smart ForTwo was born, this cheerful little car of small dimensions, which enjoyed some success around the world.

This is the end for the Smart ForTwo

In October 1998, Smart Fortwo officially entered the market. This ambitious project was led by Nicolas Hayek, Swiss watchmaker and founder of Swatch. Since the early 1990s, the latter has been working on this concept of a two-seater micro city car, looking for reliable partners to turn his idea into reality. Volkswagen, Peugeot and Renault were considered, but in the end Daimler took on the challenge, investing heavily in a new production plant called Smartville in Gambach, on the Moselle. Unfortunately, Daimler’s choice to invest in a modern plant had consequences forSale price of the Fortwo, which was very high at the time, too high for the target clientele. Also, the concept of a 2.50-meter-long micro-city car with only two seats did not appeal as much as expected. As such, sales fell well short of expectations, with only 80,000 units sold in the first full year in 1999.

When will the replacement for the Smart ForTwo come out?

Let’s move forward a little to 2019, where small restyling was offered on city cars, marking the end of heat engines. But the almost immediate switch to an all-electric engine didn’t really affect the business of the ForTwo, whose sales plummeted. So much so that this fall simply put an end to the career of the four-seater version in 2021. Then in 2023, the two-seater city car announced the end of its marketing. However, it was still possible to place an order until the end of the year. It must be said that despite the high price, the subcompact car has never shone with economy. In fact, one analyst firm even named the Fortwo as the least profitable European model of all time, with a whopping loss of more than €3.5 billion for the brand between 1997 and 2006, despite Daimler’s backing. What about replacing it? Well, the latter shouldn’t see the light of day until 2027.

Therefore, after 26 years of service, the ForTwo refused to finally end production.