Australians have new Smart EV option
Micro-car brand Smart returns to Australia with new Chinese-made EV-only line-up.
If the idea of a German-designed and engineered premium electric vehicle that’s built in China and has pricing to match appeals, then Australia’s newest automotive importer LSH Auto Australia might just have a deal for you.
The company, which bills itself as Australia’s leading Mercedes-Benz retail group, has announced it is set to introduce a range of new EVs it claims will offer “premium, trendsetting, spacious five-door, highly flexible electric motoring”.
The new Smart #1 and Smart #3 models are described by LSH Auto Australia as “German-designed and engineered premium electric vehicles”, and will be sold in both standard and high-performance Brabus versions.
The vehicles are described as being full of high-tech and safety features, with a range of up to 440km, and at an unspecified entry price that LSH Auto Australia says will be “highly competitive with current non-premium EV offerings of similar size”.
Some readers will remember the story of the Smart micro-car brand which started life in the mid-1990s as a joint venture between Swiss watchmaker Swatch and Mercedes-Benz AG, before Benz took over the business in the late ‘90s.
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The carmaker was best known for its tiny Smart Fortwo and only slightly larger Forfour micro-cars, along with the stylish Smart Roadster, all of which were sold in Australia under the auspices of Mercedes-Benz Australia at various times between 2003 and 2015.
In 2019 the Smart brand was folded into a new joint venture between Mercedes-Benz AG and Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, with a view to manufacturing Smart-badged cars in China to be marketed globally.
Geely is one of China’s largest automakers with a range of subsidiary and joint venture brands beneath its umbrella including Volvo, Proton and Lotus, plus the EV-only Polestar, Lynk & Co, and Smart.
In 2023 Geely manufactured 2.79 million vehicles, almost one million of which were EVs.
Since the launch of the first of this new generation of vehicles Smart is claimed to have delivered about 100,000 units globally, with market representation covering China, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
LSH Auto Australia will be the sole retailer of the new Smart range, with showrooms in Sydney, Melbourne and at the company’s five-storey Lifestyle precinct at Breakfast Creek, Brisbane.
Full specifications and pricing of the new Smart EVs are due to be announced in June, with online orders due to open in July ahead of the first deliveries in September.
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