The smartest electric car buy? Smart to launch as EV brand in Australia with two affordable SUVs to tackle BYD and GWM
Smart will soon officially announce plans to return to the Australian market in the near future after a 10-year hiatus and introduce a new range of battery-electric cars.
Smart vehicles were sold in Australia from 2003 until 2015 when the brand was axed following poor sales of its sole model, the ForTwo city car, but now it’s hoped by execs that the availability of two small all-electric SUVs will see the brand flourish Down Under.
China’s Geely Group bought a 50 percent stake in Smart in 2019, so you might think its Chinese owner might be fuelling the Aussie reboot. But, according to carsales.com.au, neither Geely nor former owner Mercedes-Benz are behind the plans to relaunch the brand.
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Instead, Smart’s new range will be both imported and distributed via an independent channel, with LSH Auto Australia said to be behind the brand’s return.
LSH Auto is already Benz’s biggest auto retailer, owning 11 Mercedes-Benz dealers across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. In 2021 the group reportedly sold more than 12,000 new and used vehicles.
Official timings for when the Smart #1 and #3 will be announced as part of an official statement of intent on May 27, but both models could only be months away. Any later and Smart will run the risk of landing around the same time as a number of other new Chinese brands that are all timed to make their debut over the next 18 months.
Based on the same Geely SEA platforms as the recently-launched Volvo EX30, the Smart #1 measures in at just 4.27m long, while the #3 is slightly longer but boasts a sportier SUV-coupe profile.
In Europe there’s the choice of either a 49kWh battery or a bigger 66kWh pack. The latter with a single motor is said to cover up to 440km. Both can be DC charged at a rate of 150kW.
Like the Volvo EX30 there’s the choice of either a 200kW/343Nm single motor or a dual-motor 315kW/584Nm set-up. In Germany the Smart #1 is priced from €37,490 ($A61,200).
Commenting on the reintroduction of Smart to Australia, the car-maker’s global spokesperson Sebastian Liu confirmed the return to carsales: “Yes, we will definitely return to Australian market and bring our stunning new generation EV products to local customers.”
