A brief history of the Smart car: From the Swatchmobile to the electric ForTwo
The Smart Car. You either love it or loathe it, but you definitely have an opinion on it. The compact car has been dividing opinion for many years now, and whatever your opinion on the microcar, you can’t deny it’s been pretty successful.
But, where did it all begin?
In this article, we look at the history of the Smart car.
When was the first Smart Car made?
The Smart Car actually has a very interesting history, despite it being quite a young marque.
The makers of Swatch (the brand of watches that were huge in the eighties and nineties), SMH, started developing an idea for a new car using the same type of personalisation that they used in their watches. The CEO, Nicolas Hayek, believed that the automotive industry had ignored the customers that wanted a small, stylish car. They soon called this idea the ‘Swatchmobile’, which thankfully, didn’t stick.Hayek, however, didn’t want to compete with the rest of the automotive industry by introducing the ‘Swatchmobile’ because he thought that other manufacturers would feel threatened. Probably not if they went ahead with the name ‘Swatchmobile’ but anyway, instead of competing, he wanted to cooperate. And so Hayek approached several manufacturers about his idea, final reaching an agreement with Volkswagen to share development of the new city car.[vc_single_image image=”50943″ img_size=”article-image”]Unfortunately for Swatch, Volkswagen had a new CEO in 1993 who wanted to terminate the project with SMH. Hayek had an inkling that this was going to happen, and so started looking for other partners. After being turned down by several manufacturers including Fiat and Renault, he reached an informal agreement with Daimler-Benz AG, the makers of Mercedes-Benz.
The deal was announced in 1994 with the formation of Micro Compact Car AG. It would consist of two subsidiaries; MCC GmbH which would design the car and SMH Auto SA, which was owned by Hayek, who would design a hybrid electric drive system for the car.
The first Smart car was launched in October 1998, but Hayek was disappointed with the final design. While he wanted it to be a hybrid, the first Smart car was instead a conventional fuel powered car.
When did Swatchmobile become Smart?
Before we go further we should probably tell you how the name Smart came to be. Hayek wanted ‘Swatch’ to be in the name somewhere, but Daimler-Benz wanted something more neutral. The final name was to be Smart, which stood for Swatch Mercedes Art and had actually been used internally for quite some time.
The factory in which the Smart cars were built was affectionately given the nickname ‘Smartville’.
When did Daimler-Benz fully own Smart?
During the pre-production of the Smart car, MCC needed more capital. So, Daimler-Benz recapitalized and increased their share of ownership of the company to 81%.
After the Smart car was launched, they increased this to 100%, owning Smart outright. This wasn’t long before Daimler-Benz became DaimlerChrysler.[vc_single_image image=”47568″ img_size=”article-image”]It was after this that the line of Smart cars were expanded to the Roadster and the Forfour. It was then that the original Smart car adopted the name Fortwo.
Unfortunately, this didn’t increase sales as Daimler-Benz would have liked and in the years 2003-2006, Smart GmbH (which is what it was now named) lost nearly 4 billion euros.
When was Smart liquidated?
In 2005, Daimler decided against purchasing a share in a factory to produce the Smart ForFour, ultimately ending its production. They were also planning on producing a Smart SUV called the Formore, but this was abandoned at the last minute. This was also around the same time the Roadster was also discontinued.
In 2006, Smart GmbH was liquidated and its operations were absorbed by DaimlerChrylser. It currently operates under Mercedes-Benz Car division.
When did Smart release their electric car?
Development of the electric Smart Fortwo started in 2006 and field testing began in 2007.
The second generation of these electric Smart cars was launched in 2009 with 2,000 units produced. They were available in 18 markets around the world to either lease or through the carsharing service, Car2Go in San Deigo and Amsterdam.
The lithium battery in the Smart Fortwos is provided by Tesla Motors.[vc_single_image image=”50942″ img_size=”article-image”]A more powerful electric Smart car was launched in 2013 after being unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011. It had a higher top speed and had the option for quick charging.
The fourth generation was shown at the Paris Motor Show in 2016, ready to launch this year (2017). Smart claims that the battery will be a 17.6-kilowatt-hour lithium battery, quite the improvement from the first generations 14-kilo-watt. It is also expected to have a range of 99miles.
And that pretty much brings us to the present day. You can now get Smart cars in 46 countries across the world and, as of early 2015, the Smart Fortwo surpassed 1.7 million units. Not bad for something that was going to be called the Swatchmobile.
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13 Comments
I flew to Portland, Oregon in 2020 to pick up my first Smart Fortwo, a 2013 model convertible with 42,000 miles. I had wanted one since test driving a brand new one in 2008. I do not like to buy brand new cars, preferring only to lease them for 36 months instead….However, in preparation for eventually purchasing a Smart convertible, I purchased a complete set of brand new bright yellow body panels in 2016 in the original bubble wrap, and stored them away. So my first driving experience as an owner involved my drive from Portland to Santa Cruz, California. In 2021 I drove to Newport Beach, and then to Norco to look at a car to buy and then to San Diego to look at another car to buy. Having nothing else to do, and not daring to drive into Mexico any longer, I decided to drive to Las Vegas in the afternoon. Because of the pandemic, two places I wanted to visit were both closed so I left that same day and ended up trans-secting Death Valley and ended up spending the night in Lone Pine, California where some very early movies had been filmed. Many people are surprised I drove hundreds of miles in one day in my tiny Smart convertible……especially at 73 years old. I guess it attests to the comfort of the car. Alas, my 2014 Smart EV convertible story ended terribly with Mercedes Benz categorically refusing to honour the 150,000 mile, 10 year warranty on the lithium battery when it died whilst in the care of the San Jose Mercedes Benz dealer, with but 27,000 miles and only 7 years old. I used the EV for in-town driving and the gas one for longer destinations. But were convertibles and I loved them equally. As far as the statement by the uneducated that the car is under powered, I find by flooring the gas car, the car will drop down at least 2 gears and flies up the on ramp to the freeway, or on an open road with such aplomb and wonderful exhaust note that I zoom past most cars in slower lanes. In Santa Cruz the highway 17 freeway starts at a traffic light. If, after pulling away normally across the intersection, I floor the pedal, the car flies up the hill on the freeway and only shifts into the higher gear when I’m doing 70 mph. I wish the car had a tachometer, because that 3 cylinder appears to be doing 8k rpm. I have been driving my 2013 Smart convertible with paddle shifters (which I never use) since Aug. ’20 and have put 16k miles on it. When I bought it I had to replace all the engine and transmission mounts due to the erratic and jarring manner the previous owner drove using only the paddle shifters. I prefer to drive any stick shift transmission car (and I include the Smart even though it has no driver operated clutch pedal) so that my passenger cannot detect or feel when I shift up or down. Under my style of driving, I expect the engine mounts to last my lifetime. BTW, I mostly fill up with regular. The car shows no noticeable benefit from premium. Alas Mercedes is no longer importing these magical little cars and when this one eventually succumbs to old age, I doubt I’ll be able to replace it. I’ve driven small cars all my life, but my Smart is the smallest and most pleasurable for daily driving. My first car was a genuine 1966 Morris Cooper S with a high speed differential which achieved 120mph between Carson City and Reno, Nevada for me in 1971. I’ve imported 2 Riley Elf Mk 3 minis (one a custom convertible) 3 Reliant Robin 3 wheel cars and a 1948 Leyland PD1 double deck bus from Nottingham, UK which I ultimately sold to Patch Adams (Robin Williams played him in the movie of the same name)………but is a story for another time and venue.
It’s fun to see smart is coming back with their new EV, the smart #1.
I googled a vehicle that was an automatic two seater convertible with enough room to carry my two dogs.
One of the options ….and there were few….was the Smart.
I had a test drive and bought one the same day.
I have had it since 2012 and done 33000 miles.
I tow it on a trailer behind our motorhome.
Great little car which has fulfilled all my expectations
Hello Glyn, thank you for sharing your positive experience with your Smart car. Our readers will find this very helpful when considering buying a Smart car.
Thank you for the information I am glad to know that as well because I am the owner of a first generation 2006 smart 42 I do have some questions though regarding why it won’t start I mean it did before in the past but there was a time where I put it on the on position number one and I went to go and try to start it number two you know how you get that hum sound well I guess I left it on there and it won’t start now like the fuse used to pop but now it doesn’t can anybody tell me why this is happening
Hi Sam,
Thank you for your comment, I hope our community on here will be able to provide you with some suggestions. Failing that, we would recommend a visit to your local garage.
I thank you as well.. I liked the old model so much but I missed the last year of it. Instead, I got a 2019, one of the last off the line. I got a Level 2 charger from Clipper Creek which charges it from flat to full in two hours and 20 minutes. I only got caught with a depleted battery three times. I charge it according to recommendations, between 60-80% for maximum life. I really like it.
Hi,
Thank you. The SMART car is a great little city car, perfect for short urban journeys. It’s what it was originally designed for.