Mercedes-Benz announced the price of its new electric 2017 Smart Fortwo: $23,800 for the hard top coupe and $28,000 for the cabrio with a sliding canvas roof…
Mercedes-Benz announced the price of its new electric 2017 Smart Fortwo: $23,800 for the hard top coupe and $28,000 for the cabrio with a sliding canvas roof. The new cabrio’s price is $1,200 less than the outgoing model, but the cabrio’s price is exactly the same.
Besides the price, there are some practical improvements for the new Fortwo EV. There are a few more batteries on board — 96 lithium-ion cells versus the old 93 — though the battery capacity stays the same at 17.6 kWh. The on-board charger is more powerful, and so the charging time drops in half to three hours or less. The range gets a little bump from 68 miles to 70-80 miles, enough for daily urban commutes.
The 2017 Smart Fortwo EV will be available in the United States this summer, but these tiny two-seaters have had a tough time finding a niche in America, the land of SUVs and wide roads. Parent company Daimler decided to discontinue sales of gasoline-powered Smart cars in the States this year to focus on the EVs. It also decided to stop using Smart cars in its Car2Go point-to-point car sharing service, with Mercedes-Benz cars replacing fleets in the US beginning in 2017.
Smart doesn’ t intend to compete with SUVs and pickup trucks, so who is the competition? The Tesla Model 3, the forthcoming small (but not micro) car, will have a 215-mile range for $35,000. The Chevy Bolt starts at $37,500 and has a range over 200 miles. The Volkswagen e-Golf gets 83 miles per charge, which is similar to the Fortwo’s range, but it starts at about $29,000 before tax incentives are applied. The new Hyundai Ioniq has more miles per charge at 124, but its price starts at $29,500.
So for shorter-range emissions-free commuting and errand-running, the Smart Fortwo is an inexpensive option. But for carrying more than two people — or if you have a near-crippling case of range anxiety — you’ ll need to pay more for one of the other EVs.
