The Smart #5 will Soon be Less Electric

Auto: Since its metamorphosis, the former Mercedes brand, Smart has struggled to convince European customers

Its home is China, because yes Mercedes still owns half of Smart, it’s the Geely group (Volvo, Polestar, Lotus…) who has Smart’s destiny in hand. And it was Geely who decided to move the brand from mini-city cars to high-performance electric crossovers.

It works? Apparently not so much anymore, since in China, Smart sales declined by 19% in 2024, in a market which is becoming a little less fond of 100% electric, shifting its appetite to electrics with range extenders, therefore equipped with a traditional petrol engine. Smart therefore decided to adapt.

Hybrid

We thus learn that the brand’s largest model, the #5 SUV recently launched in Europe, will be offered in China in “EHD” version, for Electric Hybrid Drive. Concretely, the model combines an electric motor and a 1.5 liter petrol engine block of 160 hp. We also have a 40 kWh battery (rather large for a model hybrid) promising 250 km by Chinese standards. These same standards would give a total range of 1,600 km.

Is this version of Smart #5 planned in Europe ? We don’t have any information at the moment, but the opposite would be surprising, as the brand has become invisible in our part of the world. We will also note in passing that the SUV Smart uses Geely’s SEA platform, which the little one also uses Volvo EX30. Hybridization of the latter is therefore technically possible.