smart (it feels odd to start a sentence without a capital letter) has released the preliminary design details and name for its next all-electric model. The imaginatively-named #3 will be an all-electric SUV coupé “with a sporty and avant-garde design”, says the maker.
“This muscular, yet elegantly sensual and perfectly balanced attraction of opposites makes the design an important milestone in the evolution of smart’s premiumness’ core value,” said Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz AG. “The design of the #3 is emotionally confident, attracting and even thrilling the viewer.” So there you go.
As ever the design sketches give the car wheels the size and depth of a Formula 1 racer, which makes it look a bit like a toy, but overall the look of the car is very on trend. At the front you get a slim LED light array in a bulbous “shark nose” bonnet. If anything the front end has a whiff of the Kia EV6 about it, with the back end getting a wide C pillar and steep rear window maybe a bit reminiscent of a muscly VW ID.4. The Mercedes-Benz design team hasn’t drawn a rear wiper, we note…
The look, we’re told, “combines athletic appearance with elements of premium, progressively modern features, such as tail lights with pixelated elements.” The smart #3 is going to premiere at Auto Shanghai 2023 on 18 April. The smart #3 extends the company’s new product range established by the smart #1, which has made its European market debut and is set to arrive in the UK this summer. Further details on the new smart #3 for the European market are yet to be released.
