2016 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe on 2040-cars

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Street Glory Mappers turning cars into dynamic billboards like this

A French marketing firm with the impenetrable name of Street Glory Mappers is literally turning cars into billboards. Of course, we've all seen vehicles painted up for promotional use, but this company is taking that concept even further by including video.
Street Glory Mappers equips the vehicles with a large video screen behind the windshield to play whatever is being advertised. According to the company's promo, it may even be possibly to sync up the vehicle's lights with the show, as well. The firm claims that it's a great form of temporary, mobile marketing because the car can arrive at the location, play the video and then go away when the prospective audience leaves.
While it doesn't necessarily seem any more effective than other forms of advertising, the firm's idea is at least unobtrusive. After all, it's easier to ignore a stationary car than a person handing out flyers. However, vehicle flashing its lights and playing video could certainly distract other drivers.

Smart Fortwo successor spotted wearing new nose

Judging by the numerous concept vehicles from Smart lately, we can pretty much already tell what the future has in store for the brand's growing lineup. Still, these new spy shots give us our first look at the next Fortwo being tested with what looks to be a production-ready nose.
Although this mule still uses cobbled together pieces from a Renault Twingo that we've seen in previous spy shots, the camouflaged front end shows a likeness to recent concepts like the Fourjoy and Forstars. This includes the short, flat nose, an enlarged grille and the headlight shape, but one noticeable difference is the addition of marker lights positioned just below the main beams. From what we hear, the next-gen Fortwo will be unveiled early next year at the Geneva Motor Show, and it will be slightly bigger than the current model.

Smart #1 revealed as tiny EV with surprising amount of power

The Smart #1 electric crossover has officially been revealed, along with its specifications. In addition to looking extremely similar to the concept of the same name, it packs quite a bit of horsepower and can hold a lot of electric power. It's all wrapped in a package that we could see in America, but likely won't come to our shores. Visually, the Smart is virtually unchanged from the concept. It still has the floating roof, contrasting colors and curvy body. The only changes seem to be some extra little detailing in the front and rear bumpers and the addition of door handles, which are flush to the body. They pop out when someone needs to get in. The doors also have frameless glass. The whole car is still fairly small, but not quite as small as some past Smarts. Its 168-inch length makes it similar in size to the Nissan Kicks, Hyundai Kona and other subcompact crossovers. Even the interior looks basically the same with the accent lighting, flowing center stack and prominent center screen, which measures 12.8 inches. Added to the interior is a low and wide 9.2-inch instrument screen, and the car has an available 10-inch head-up display. Perhaps most interesting is the powertrain. This tiny car has an electric motor making 268 horsepower, enough to scare GTI owners. That motor is also mounted in the rear and powering the rear wheels. It's a tad heavy, though, at 4,012 pounds. That's partly because it has a battery with a 66-kWh capacity. On the WLTP test cycle, that's good for between 260 to 273 miles. The Smart also supports DC fast charging with a peak charging speed of 150 kW. From 10% to 80%, it should charge in less than 30 minutes. The Smart #1 is expected to go on sale later this year, and will be built in China. It's also a joint venture between Mercedes and Geely. Although it's the first Smart model we could see being a genuine success in the U.S., we're not expecting it to appear here. Not just because it would need to be homologated for our market, but the fact that the whole Smart brand left, along with the dealer network. Restarting all that would be a big investment for one car that may or may not be a success. Related Video: