It has been seven years since Daimler pulled the plug on the four-seater, four-door Smart ForFour, which shared its underpinnings and was built in the same factory with the European-market Mitsubishi Colt in Holland.
Now, the Germans want to expand the range of their Smart unit again to include a more spacious model than the ForTwo, only this time, they are going at it in a different way.
For starters, Daimler has found a new partner for Smart in the form and shape of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Among the many new projects the two companies are involved in is the development of a common platform and small displacement engines for the next Renault Twingo and a series of Smart models, including the next ForTwo and the longer ForFour.
This brings us to the second major difference with the older ForFour, which used a traditional front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout, as the new model will borrow the ForTwo’s rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout.
In these spy images, we see an early chassis mule for the longer wheelbase model. If you’re wondering how Smart will fit four passengers in such a small footprint, there’s a good chance that the ForFour will feature an MPV-like body, possibly similar to a clay prototype we spied back in 2011.
Expect to see a concept version teasing the shape of the ForFour within the next year or so.
Photo Credits: CarPix for CarScoop
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