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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.
Continue reading 2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive
2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive originally appeared on
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First Drive: 2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive
