intelligent car . smart automobile the current logo for smart as of august 2016 . type division industry automotive founded 1994 ; 22 years ago 1994 headquarters b blingen germany key people annette winkler ceo 2010 present products microcar owner daimler ag website smart.com smart fortwo smart fortwo cabriolet 1993 eco sprinter and eco speedster concepts a stack of smart vehicles in canberra smart crossblade a smart fortwo mhd cabrio left and a smart fortwo mhd coupe right smart automobile 1 stylized and marketed as smart is a german automotive company and division of daimler ag based in b blingen germany . it ranges in microcars and subcompacts primarily the fortwo and forfour with its primary assembly plants located in hambach france and novo mesto slovenia . marketed in 46 2 countries in asia north and south america africa australia and europe production of the fortwo had surpassed 1.7 m units by early 2015 . 3 4 5 the design concept for the company s automobiles began at mercedes benz in the early 70s and late 80s . after brief backing by volkswagen the first model was released by daimler benz in october 1998 . several variants on the original design have been introduced with the original being the fortwo . smart derives from cooperation with swatch and mercedes swatch mercedes art. 6 in its branding the company lowercases its logotype and the logo incorporating a c and an arrow for compact and forward thinking respectively . contents 1 origins 2 company history 3 models 3.1 production models 3.2 concept and unproduced models 4 electric versions 4.1 smart electric vehicle 4.2 electric vehicle conversions 5 marketing 5.1 asia 5.1.1 japan 5.1.2 china 5.1.3 hong kong 5.1.4 indonesia 5.2 north america 5.2.1 canada 5.2.2 united states 5.2.3 mexico 5.3 south america 5.3.1 argentina 5.3.2 brazil 5.4 oceania 5.4.1 australia 5.5 europe 5.5.1 united kingdom 5.5.2 russia 6 safety 7 modification 8 see also 9 notes 10 references 11 external links origins edit in late 1982 smh makers of the swatch brand of watches ceo nicolas hayek began developing an idea for a new car using the same type of manufacturing strategies and personalization features used to popularize swatch watches . he believed that the automotive industry had ignored a sector of potential customers who wanted a small and stylish city car . this idea soon became known as the swatchmobile . hayek s private company hayek engineering ag began designing the new car for smh with seating for two and a hybrid drivetrain . 7 while design of the car was proceeding hayek feared existing manufacturers would feel threatened by the swatchmobile . thus rather than directly competing he preferred to cooperate with another company in the automotive industry . this would also relieve smh of the cost burden in setting up a distribution network . hayek approached several automotive manufacturers and on july 3 1991 he reached an agreement with volkswagen to share development of the new project . 8 by 1993 ferdinand pi ch had become ceo of volkswagen and he immediately sought to terminate the project with smh . volkswagen had already been working on their own three litre car a car which would consume three litres of fuel per 100 km of driving the eventual volkswagen lupo 3l . volkswagen s own concept was believed to be a better business proposition featuring four seats and more cargo room . 9 hayek had suspected that pi ch would seek to end the agreement with smh upon his ascendancy to the ceo position ; therefore he discreetly began approaching other car companies with the swatchmobile project . rebuffed by bmw fiat general motors and renault he finally reached an informal agreement with daimler benz ag maker of mercedes benz cars . 10 a deal was announced on march 4 1994 at a press conference at mercedes benz headquarters in stuttgart that the companies would join forces in founding micro compact car ag mcc . 49 % of the initial capital of 50 million swiss francs were provided by smh and the remaining 51 % by daimler benz . the company consisted of two subsidiaries mcc gmbh based in renningen a suburb of stuttgart which would design the car and the then unnamed manufacturing plant . smh auto sa owned by hayek would design a hybrid electric drive system for the car while hayek engineering would audit the design and manufacturing . 11 the press conference also featured the debut of two concept cars the eco sprinter and eco speedster styled by mercedes benz s design studio in california . 12 the cars were similar to the eventual smart city coup . no mention was made of the fact that smh had no input in the design of these concepts 13 and they were badged as mercedes benzes . by the end of april 1994 mcc had set up a head office in biel switzerland . 14 company history edit three co directors were immediately named to head the new company designer and engineer johann tomforde and financial administrator christoph baubin from daimler benz and marketing manager hans j rg sch r who spearheaded the original swatch marketing campaigns in the mid 1980s . tomforde had been working on the mercedes city car coincidentally abbreviated mcc project at daimler benz since 1990 which produced the eco sprinter and eco speedster concepts as well as the vision a concept which eventually became the mercedes benz a class . 15 one of the first controversies at mcc was the name of the car itself . nicolas hayek insisted it retain swatch in some way swatchmobile or swatch car . daimler benz refused and pushed for a neutral name . 16 the final selection was smart an acronym that had been previously used internally by mcc for swatch mercedes art . by may 1994 the co directors had identified 74 potential sites for the assembly plant . the final site was announced on december 20 1994 hambach france . 17 the purpose built factory quickly gained the nickname smartville . in 1995 tomforde devised a modular system of assembly for the car insisting suppliers design and assemble and even install their own modules onto the final car at the new plant using their own employees thus reducing the cost overhead for the parent companies and divesting mcc of the financial and legal liabilities for those parts . it also provided a fiscal framework whereby mcc could share the development costs with the suppliers rather than having to fund the entire project themselves . 18 mcc secured contracts with suppliers to design and supply almost all parts of the car seats by faurecia interiors by vdo chassis and door modules by magna door panels by dynamit nobel and suspension by krupp . 19 despite offloading a substantial amount of the development on the suppliers mcc required more capital . recapitalization by daimler benz increased their share of ownership in the company to 81 % by 1996 leaving smh with only the remaining 19 % . 20 the assembly plant opened on october 27 1997 with a ceremonial ribbon cutting by then french president jacques chirac and german chancellor helmut kohl . 21 introduction of the new smart city coup was planned for march 1998 however dynamic instability of the prototypes prompted daimler benz to announce postponing the launch until october 1998 . johann tomforde was replaced as chief engineer by gerhard fritz . 22 fritz lowered the centre of gravity widened the track stiffened the suspension changed the steering and added ballast weight to the front of the car in order to increase its stability in emergency avoidance manoeuvres notably the swedish moose test . 23 the car launched successfully in nine european countries in october 1998 but the final design did not fulfill hayek s expectations . hayek pushed for a hybrid drivetrain but the final product used a relatively conventional gasoline engine . shortly afterward daimler benz bought out smh s remaining stake in the company . 24 mcc was now a wholly owned subsidiary of daimler benz which soon merged with chrysler corporation to become daimlerchrysler . the office in biel was shut down and operations were consolidated at the mcc gmbh design centre in germany . on january 1 1999 mcc gmbh changed its name to mcc smart gmbh 25 and by 2000 it dropped the last vestiges of the association with smh becoming smart gmbh . 26 the model line was subsequently expanded to include the roadster a rear engine rear drive and four door four seat supermini aptly named forfour the original city coup was renamed fortwo to fit the new naming scheme . the expansion did not increase profits at the company ; smart gmbh lost nearly 4 billion euros from 2003 to 2006 . 27 plans were enacted to increase the company s profitability and integrate its operations with daimler at the time daimlerchrysler . in 2005 daimler decided against purchasing a 50 % share in the dutch nedcar plant used to manufacture the forfour ending its production . a planned suv called formore was terminated as the assembly plant in brazil was being fitted with machines and production of the roadster was discontinued . in 2006 after dwindling sales and heavy financial losses smart gmbh was liquidated and its operations were absorbed by daimlerchrysler directly . smart now operates under the mercedes benz cars division of daimler ag offering the fortwo coupe fortwo cabrio and forfour hatchback . 28 models edit apart from the original smart fortwo a sporty smart roadster a limited production of 2000 erstwhile concept smart crossblade and a supermini smart forfour were also offered . these have now been discontinued . there were also plans to introduce the french made cross over based on the body of the forfour and the awd hardware of the mercedes c class with the name of formore but industrialization of this was cancelled at the 11th hour even as tooling was being installed in the assembly plant due to unfavourable exchange rate swings and spending cutbacks driven by losses elsewhere within smart . production models edit production model picture 1998 2000 smart city coup & city cabrio from 2000 2002 smart crossblade 2001 2007 smart city coup & city cabrio renamed fortwo in 2004 2001 2004 smart k japan only 2003 2005 smart roadster 2004 2006 2014 present smart forfour 2007 2015 smart fortwo 2008 2016 in limited trials 29 smart fortwo ed formerly known as ev 2016 present smart fortwo concept and unproduced models edit tridion 4 2001 crosstown 2005 forspeed 2011 forvision 2011 forstars 2012 30 formore never shown electric versions edit smart electric vehicle edit two smart electric drive cars deployed in the car2go carsharing program charging at the herengracht in amsterdam main article smart electric drive an all electric version of the fortwo the smart fortwo electric vehicle previously known as smart ed began development in 2006 . 31 32 field testing began in london with 100 units in 2007 and the second generation with a total of 2 000 units produced was introduced in 2009 and available in 18 markets around the world for leasing or through the car2go carsharing service in san diego and amsterdam . 33 34 35 36 production of the second generation smart fortwo electric drive began in november 2009 in hambach france . the smart eds have a lithium ion battery provided by tesla motors with capacity of 14 kilowatt hours 50 mj . the range of a fully charged battery is up to 135 kilometres 84 miles under the new european driving cycle nedc . 37 38 the u.s. environmental protection agency s official all electric range is 63 miles 101 km and rated the smart ed with a combined fuel economy of 87 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent mpg e 2.7 l gasoline equivalent 100 km ; 104 mpg imp gasoline equivalent .