Welcome to Smart Cars

History of the Smart Car

In the early '90s CEO Nicolas Hayek of the Swiss watchmaking company Swatch set out to create a new automobile. in Europe, fuel prices have always been higher than in North America, and narrow city streets and urban congestion have led Europeans to accept smaller more fuel efficient vehicles. His idea was to develop a vehicle that was easy to park and short enough to allow "nose-in" parking. Its length of 250 centimetres (98.4 in) would equal the width of a regular parking slot, allowing two or three to park in the space of one normal car.

Hayek first approached Volkswagen, then later Daimler-Benz to bring his revolutionary car into production. In 1993, smart began as a joint venture between Daimler-Benz and Swatch, creating a company known as Micro Compact Car AG headquartered in Biel, Switzerland.

Capitalizing on the engineering experience of Daimler-Benz and the design genius of Swatch, the two-passenger Smart City-Coupe was created for a European urban environment, with a specific emphasis placed on fuel economy and parking ease.

The first version of the Smart car used a conventional engine and was relatively highly priced. Hayek was not satisfied and Swatch pulled out leaving Daimler-Benz as the owner of the smart division.

Initial sales began in nine continental European countries, and the car proved popular with consumers. This success led to an eventual expansion of the Smart car brand with the introduction of additional Smart models, including the Roadster and Roadster-Coupe in 2003 and the Forfour sedan in 2004. Acceptance of these model lines was less than stellar, however, as consumers found them to be overpriced. This failure led to a significant downturn in Smart's profits. The Smart division was soon put on DaimlerChrysler's chopping block. CEO Dieter Zetsche saved it with a new business model built around the City-Coupe, which had been renamed Fortwo.

Since then close to 800,000 units have been sold in 36 countries. An updated ForTwo Fortwo debuted in 2006. While maintaining the general look of the iconic city car, the new smart featured an updated interior and a new version of its "automatic" manual transmission. While slightly larger, the smart maintained the general look of the iconic city car, but the interior and often-criticized automanual transmission received significant changes and safety was improved.

In 2005, Ulrich Walker, smart president, made an official announcement that smart cars will beintroduced to the US market.

The latest Fortwo that will have been on sale in Europe for a year by the time it is available in the U.S. Expect two trim levels of the hatchback, and a cabrio. The entry-level Pure with a five-speed automated manual transmission will be priced below $12,000. The Passion Coupe features panorama roof, shift paddles on a three-spoke leather sports steering wheel , heated side mirrors, and an upgraded stereo for under $14,000. The top-of-the-line Passion Cabriolet will start below $17,000.

All U.S. models will be powered by a new 1.0-liter engine supplied by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. They are expected to achieve about 40 mpg in combined city and highway driving.

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