Smart anticipates the #5 fiasco and adds a combustion engine to it
This page is translated from the original post "Smart anticipe le fiasco du #5 et lui greffe un moteur thermique" in French.
- 18/07/2025 19:30
Now Chinese, the company Smart has unveiled a hybrid thermal version of its SUV #5, which was previously 100% electric, in Hangzhou.
The surprise is almost total. No one had anticipated this announcement, which sounds like a wake-up call coming out of China: the Smart #5 is now available in a thermal version.
Smart tries to wrap the information in a veneer of technology and energy efficiency, but the result is the same: customer distrust towards 100% electric vehicles. Named Smart #5 EHD, this new variant is thus a plug-in hybrid, which is essentially the worst of both worlds: neither purely thermal nor purely electric, but a combination of both. Therefore, zero relevance, as everyone knows.
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Who will buy a Smart #5 EHD?
By trying to please everyone, one mainly risks pleasing no one. This simple principle, Smart has not heeded. The #5 EHD thus features a 1.5-liter turbo engine with a power of 161 horsepower, coupled with an LFP battery with a capacity exceeding 40 kWh! Which is enormous. It promises an autonomy of 250 km in 100% electric mode and a combined range of 1600 km. Which is absolutely unnecessary.
Yet, Smart announces a consumption of 4.4 liters per 100 km according to Chinese CLTC standards, which is very high. In terms of incongruity, the exterior dimensions remain the same as the electric version… but the wheelbase would be 5 millimeters longer. Finally, being a plug-in hybrid means a XXL weight, here of 2190 kg.
More factually, Smart has become a small player in the automotive industry since its acquisition by the Daimler group. Sales are collapsing in China (less than 34,000 cars sold in 2024), and the trend is even worse in 2025.
Does integrating a thermal engine into the Smart #5 not sound like a last gasp before death? The electric product is not stupid, far from it, but given the current circumstances, who would risk buying a Smart today, in China, Europe, or elsewhere? The launch will occur in the fourth quarter of 2025 in China.
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