Is it still a spy shot if the people making the car take the picture and send it over themselves? Probably not, but here’s the new Smart #2 undergoing a spot of testing before it’s revealed later this year at the Paris motor show. 

It’s probably the sternest test of modern Smart yet, mashing together Mercedes design and Geely engineering to recreate the company’s original iconic machine. Will it still be innovative and stylish enough to win over trendy urban types? 

We’ve seen a hint of the design to come with the #2 concept car that was revealed at the Beijing motor show earlier this year, but the hard work is underway to make sure that the car can cope with whatever the roads throw at it – kerbs, bumps and potholes. The engineers are using a dedicated test track that may or may not be modelled on the drive to your local Lidl. 

The Smart logo bedecked camouflage wrap on the car is doing its best to disguise the #2 test car, but we can obviously see the teardrop headlights up front and large round tail lights, as well as Smart’s signature floating roof and some styling flourishes along the side of the car. 

It all tracks with what we saw on the concept version of the car, minus some of the more creative flourishes that designers like to chuck on their design concepts. So no leather luggage straps to be spotted on the test car and there’s room left for number plates and the like too. Got to think practically with the production versions. 

There are still lots of details we don’t know about the new #2 – minor details like battery, range, pricing – that we’re excited to find out about at the Paris motor show when it takes place in October.