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SMART to Live On

By Drew Dowdell

· 1,551 views

  • ... the rumors of SMART's death have been premature.

We recently reported that Daimler could possibly kill off the SMART brand after years of losing money.  One of our own suggestions was that SMART expand into a regular car brand instead of staying in just the micro-car segment.   Well, things change quickly in this industry. Yesterday, Daimler paired with Chinese manufacturer Geely in a 50-50 joint venture to bring the next generation of SMART vehicles to China.  Part of that expansion will be a move up into the sub-compact market, a fast-growing market in China. 

SMART will remain an electric car brand and will be a joint development between the two companies.  Though not disclosed at this time, it is possible that SMART will use the platform being jointly developed with BMW for its forthcoming i2 car. 

The current SMART cars are on a joint-venture platform shared with the Renault Twingo.  Renault has not expressed an interest in renewing that partnership with Daimler for the next generation of cars. Currently, the ForTwo is built in Hambach Germany.  After 2022, that factory is slated to build Mercedes EQ cars.

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    Mentor

    smk4565

    Members

    Should have sold 100% to Geely.

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    Grand Master

    Drew Dowdell

    Editor-in-Chief
    34 minutes ago, dfelt said:

    Interesting, Love the picture of a Smart car getting towed away. How smart was it? :lol:

    I was on the bus yesterday and spotted that. I decided I would need a picture like that in the near future, so a snapped a shot quick.

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    Collaborator

    daves87rs

    Members

    At least they are still around.....

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    • Veteran

    surreal1272

    Members
    18 hours ago, dfelt said:

    Interesting, Love the picture of a Smart car getting towed away. How smart was it? :lol:

    What is not being stated here is the fact that it could have been loaded onto the bed of your average pick up as opposed to wasting twenty feet of space on a rollback truck. 

    6 hours ago, daves87rs said:

    At least they are still around.....

    So is gonorrhea but we still try to make sure we don’t get it. 

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    • Haha 4

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