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2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive

Matt Davis — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:57:00 EST

Filed under: Hatchback, Smart, First Drives, Electric

Little Daimler Child Finally Nails It With Electrons

Since the official launch of the Smart Fortwo in October 1998, the little company within Daimler has never made a profit. Far from it. Not for lack of trying, certainly. Many of us know well the story of myriad attempts to force the world to adopt the Smart way of living in the automotive sense, only to have the various chapters conclude in a disillusioning crash and financial burn.

Smart is still trying desperately to find its proper path as a global player that sells rather well - and not just in London and a few Italian and German cities. They insist that China is the great frontier nowadays for the Fortwo in all of its trims, and they still want to figure out North America.

Is electricity the only way to force the breakthrough? We drove the previous generation Smart Fortwo Electric Drive a couple of years ago and had an amazingly good time at it. The punch for traffic holeshots was addictive, and the size of the trinket-on-wheels is ideal for big-shouldered cities - this cannot be debated no matter your personal feelings about the car.

But whereas the Germans and Roger Penske firmly believed that crisis-stricken Americans would come in droves to the Smart dealer, begging for a Fortwo of any type given the model's efficiencies, Americans never made the transition of seeing the Fortwo as anything but a purchase for when you have spare change lying around and want a third toy in the garage. And young buyers who can only afford a single vehicle generally want that car to have luggage space and four seats. A more reasonable bang for buck doesn't hurt either.

Seeing as electric vehicles are slowly convincing us (very slowly) that there's some sense in their costing more than traditional-engine cars, Smart sees this as a big opportunity to offer something that still has an inflated price and more premium early adopter lifestyle aura. We have our significant doubts about all of this working, but let's get on with the drive.

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2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Geneva 2011: Smart ForSpeed Concept is urban green toplessness

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:31:00 EST

Filed under: Concept Cars, Convertible, Geneva Motor Show, Smart, Electric

Smart ForSpeed Concept - Click above for high-res image gallery

Here we have the none-too-speedy Smart ForSpeed concept. Well, perhaps that's not quite fair, as the diminutive Smart actually is plenty quick enough for its intended mission, which is to say it's fully capable of jetting between urban skyscrapers while dodging taxi cabs and pedestrians.

Want hard numbers? Smart claims the roofless ForSpeed can hit (a seemingly arbitrary) 37 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds on its way up to a top speed of 75 mph. Perhaps more importantly, Smart estimates its little electric mobile unit has a range of 85 miles per charge and that an 80-percent charge is possible in just 45 minutes.

Naturally, there's a whole press release of details that can be found after the break, along with a high-res image gallery of live photos below.

Gallery: Smart Forspeed Concept: Geneva 2011

Continue reading Geneva 2011: Smart ForSpeed Concept is urban green toplessness

Geneva 2011: Smart ForSpeed Concept is urban green toplessness originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesla working with Daimler for electric smarts?

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:01:00 EST

Filed under: Hybrid, Green, Smart, Rumormill

Chalk this one firmly in the rumormill category, but Johnathan Bodily over at Street Import Online is reporting that he's seen what appears to be an electric smart fortwo at Tesla's facility in San Carlos plugged into a Tesla-branded charging station. What's more, this particular smart differed from other fortwos in that it lacked a tail pipe. We know that Daimler has been running second-generation smart ed's (with lithium ion batteries from an unknown source) around various locations for a little while, and that Tesla has stated that it has signed a few deals to supply batteries to other companies for their electric vehicle projects. Putting this final piece of the puzzle together, it appears we have enough circumstantial evidence to conclude that the Silicon Valley company is provided the batteries to Daimler for its new electric smart cars.

Hopefully, this collaboration will bear fruit in the form of both electric smart cars in America and provide Tesla Motors with some of the working capital it needs to continue forward with its Model S electric sedan project. We contacted Tesla for an official response, and as expected got a definitive "no comment." Next question, is Tesla providing the battery packs for the MINI E? Any camera wielding readers who happen to be in the in the San Carlos, CA area might want to cruise past Tesla's office and see if they can snap a picture of any cars plugged in outside the front door. If you do, drop us a tip and we'll tell you how to send us your photos.

[Source: Street Import Online]

Tesla working with Daimler for electric smarts? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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