Product and fashion combine for new smart #2 interior

Smart has revealed the interior of the next-gen 'fortwo' and design has clearly been elevated in the list of priorities. 

The #2, as it will be called, carries the familiar and unique proportions of the original car: almost square in plan view with wheels at the very furthest corners of its chassis. It would do the design team a disservice to describe it as childlike, but it is playful and genuine in a way that many other cars cannot replicate.

“We were really happy to be designing the two seater smart again,” said interior design director Till Varailhon de la Filolie as we stand alongside a scale model of the interior. “It was a big challenge but it’s an iconic car. It’s not a revival but a continuation with the same core DNA.”

Sylvain Wehnert, head of design creation at Smart and Mercedes-Benz Vans, added that the team very consciously focussed on maintaining the car’s diminutive frame. “We really, really wanted to keep the car as short as possible and have a similar footprint. With the width you want to provide, it results in a rather square footprint and because you reduce the overhangs, it  generates the most inner space with the least outer space.” Wehnert and Varailhon are showcasing their versatility here, as both worked on the much larger 2020 Mercedes Vision Avatr concept.

Rome felt like a curious location for an intimate press preview, perhaps even a 'throw a dart at a map' situation. But of course, it quickly became clear that The Eternal City is indeed a strategic choice: its streets are awash with the original dinky two-seater, often parked front-on in conventional parking spaces, or simply slotted in the gap between a dumpster and a Piaggio. 

We have yet to verify this, but we are told there is a strong community of ‘smartisti’ in Rome – a riff on the term ‘Alfisti’ used to describe Alfa Romeo fans. In Italy alone some 600,000 fortwos have been registered since 1998, and 90% of those are still on the road. Some jurisdictions even offer dedicated ‘smart only’ parking spaces. “Romans really adopted the smart brand,” says head of PR, Mattias Reintgen. “Rome was really the only place we could host this.”

“We had a fantastic show with this [concept] car in Beijing, but bringing it to Rome brings out a very different characteristic of the car," says Wehnert. "Pretty soon you'll see the next generation roaming through the streets of this city. That's going to be very exciting.”

The #2 does indeed build on the Concept #2 shown in Beijing earlier this year. That show car effectively exaggerates the principles behind the upcoming production car: fashion and fun. On the concept, fabric straps suspend the wheels and head lamps, while the final car more pragmatically employs straps for various pull handles inside the car.

Product design is very acutely in the eye of the car design world right now, and that influence is clear on the #2 as well. Beyond the interior buck and a static model of the Beijing concept, the design team displayed a handful of components as sculptures – tail lamps, instrument gauges, and a set of Sennheiser headphones in the same CMF theme as the car’s interior: white and gold.

Echoing that is the treatment of key touchpoints in the car, in particular the turbine-like air vents that are suitably labelled with an unmistakable ‘air’ icon at the centre and a light gold inner ring. The perforated fabric that surrounds it, and indeed clads much of the interior, reminded us of the breathable wrap you might see around a high-end set of speakers or a posh Alexa-like digital assistant.

In combination with the seats either side, the centre console forms a bench seat of sorts. There is no transmission tunnel, so driver and passenger can scoot across should access be restricted in tight parking spaces. That centre console sports a gold fabric pull tab (to pull the unit upwards and out of the way) and ahead of this sits a set of four buttons for both windows and door locks; with a recessed area at the centre, it almost looks like a mouth ready to chomp. Another gold fabric pull tab lurks further ahead, and is a pragmatic evolution of what was presented on the concept.

Perhaps the most distinctive component is the wave-shaped instrument panel which sweeps away from the driver and towards the passenger like the flick of a brush. This was originally done for packaging reasons to house the air bag, and has been carried through to the new #2. A pair of jet thruster air vents sit at the centre, with two more at either corner of the cabin. These outer units appear to pierce the IP, with fluted canisters poking out of the other side.

Circles and spheres are prominent throughout, particularly with the huge loops on the door cards that give the impression of gargantuan speakers but are in fact purely stylistic. Elsewhere, an upturned U shape can be seen in the symmetrical headrests and seat sides.

A two-seater smart is of course a city car at heart, but this modern iteration has been designed to go beyond the city borders, giving drivers the confidence that they are safe alongside much larger vehicles and at higher speeds. The #2 contains a higher proportion of high strength steel than before, improving structural rigidity and thus crash safety. We are told the steering will be even more direct than usual and a turning circle of 6.95m will no doubt be welcomed by Rome’s somewhat cavalier drivers. Range is said to be twice that of the previous electric model, and a new five-link rear axle means it should handle nicely in the twisties too.

It has felt for some time as though the small car was dead. But evidence is mounting to suggest a resurgence of genuinely petite A-segment cars — not bloated hatchbacks or crossovers. 

From the Citroen Ami (and its cousin the Fiat Topolino) to the slightly larger but still compact Renault 5, Alpine A290, Nissan Micra (which also share a platform) and the new VW Polo, there is renewed appetite from the big brands to furnish Europe with products for congested and narrow city streets. Even smaller outfits like Microlino, which riffs on the classic Isetta ‘bubble’ form, are now seeing sales on the rise. With the #2 there is another little guy on the block.

Sketches presented on the day and indeed as part of the press pack are signed not by individual designers, but by the ‘Design Team’. This reflects the general sentiment of the leadership group that joined us in Rome: group efforts, not solo wins.