AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/22 Report--

At the Shanghai International Auto Show, the smart brand's brand-new smart spirit #3 debuted. Officials revealed that the new car will be available in both regular and high-performance BRABUS versions, which are expected to be launched in June this year and delivered simultaneously. In the smart product series, the new car can be regarded as a "Spirit 1 coupe version" model, relevant reports said, the new car price may exceed 210,000 yuan. In contrast, the smart wizard #1 currently on sale sells for 179,000 - 279,000 yuan.

According to the pictures of Shanghai Auto Show, the appearance of the new car basically continues the family design style of smart brand. The front face adopts the popular through-type LED daytime running lights and integrates with the headlight groups on both sides. The brand LOGO is located at the front fender position. The BRABUS version will add more sporty elements to the front face, including blackening the smart logo and adding similar vent elements to the hood. In the front enclosure part, the new car also uses a large-area trapezoidal grille, but the air inlet in the fog lamp area on both sides is inclined at a larger angle and is more slender in visual effect.

On the side of the body, the new car adopts a slip-back shape, which makes the new car more in line with the coupe SUV, and the roof creates a suspended design feeling. The rear part almost keeps the same design style as smart sprite #1, adopts through-type tail lamp design, LED light source is inside the lamp group, BRABUS version still carries black painting on the logo and nameplate position. In terms of body size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4400 (4542)/1844 /1556mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2785 mm. The overall size is slightly larger than smart sprite #1. It is expected that the positioning will be higher than smart sprite #1, or compact SUV. For comparison, smart sprite #1 is 4290/1910/1698mm in length, width and height, respectively, and has a wheelbase of 2750 mm.

In the interior part, the new car also adopts family-style design language, equipped with 9.2-inch LCD instrument display screen and 12.8-inch central suspension touch screen, with flat-bottom multi-function steering wheel and gearshift mechanism. In addition, different from smart wizard #1 elliptical air conditioning outlet design, the new car adopts circular design, with strong overall sense of technology.

In terms of power, the ordinary version of the new car is equipped with single motor drive with a maximum power of 200kW, while the BRABUS version is equipped with dual motor drive with a maximum power of 315kW and a peak total torque of 543N·m.

The smart brand was first founded in 1994 and originated from the German Mercedes-Benz light luxury smart pure electric car brand. Although the smart brand has Mercedes-Benz genes, due to product positioning and price, the smart brand is not well known worldwide, and sales data are very common. Data show that smart global sales fell 6% year-on-year to 136,000 units in 2017; 4.6% year-on-year to 129,000 units in 2018.

In an effort to reverse the sales downturn, the smart brand discontinued all fuel vehicles in 2019, while the smart spirit #1 currently on sale is the first production model launched after the electrification transformation of the smart brand, operated by a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, which signed a cooperation agreement in early 2019, but earlier in 2018, Geely became Daimler's largest shareholder with about $9 billion, with a stake ratio close to 10%.

At the beginning of 2020, Geely Holding Group and Mercedes-Benz announced that the smart brand global joint venture company "Smart Motor Automobile Co., Ltd." established by both parties was formally established. Both parties held 50% of shares. The two parties had basically equal right to speak. The shareholders of both parties would jointly operate and promote the transformation of smart brand globally, devote themselves to building smart into a high-end electric intelligent vehicle brand, and clarify their respective responsibilities. Mercedes-Benz led the design and Geely led the engineering development. Smart brand transformation focuses on pure electric vehicles, with Geely providing the architecture and core powertrain of the model.

On June 6,2022, the smart spirit #1 jointly developed by Geely and Mercedes-Benz was officially launched. The car was built based on SEA vast architecture. The appearance and interior design came from Mercedes-Benz. Geely provided SEA vast pure electric architecture and overall engineering research and development.

Smart Spirit #1 is positioned as a pure electric small SUV, and a total of 3 models were launched. At that time, the price range was 1816 - 226,600 yuan. Later, due to the rise of global raw material prices, smart China announced that the retail price of smart Spirit #1 Premium configuration model was increased by 5800 yuan, and the prices of the other two versions remained unchanged. In terms of power, it is equipped with single-motor rear drive layout. The motor type is permanent magnet synchronous motor. The maximum power is 272 horsepower and the peak torque is 343 N·m. Under CLTC condition, the comprehensive endurance range can reach 535 km and 560 km.

New car traffic insurance data shows that cumulative sales in 2022 since the delivery of smart wizard #1 are 9026. According to the latest retail data of the Association, the cumulative sales volume of smart spirit #1 in the first three months of 2023 was 12697, of which 3170, 3616 and 5911 were sold from January to March respectively. Smart spirit #3 may continue to boost sales of smart brand after its launch. Between 2022 and 2024, the smart brand will launch a new pure tram model every year, officials said.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat