Smart's in Danger, and Not Just in North America

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

According to a report out of Germany, we’ll know by the end of the year whether Daimler AG intends to keep its Smart city car division alive.

Created a quarter century ago, Smart’s focus on microscopic urban runabouts like the Fortwo gave way to a plan to go all-electric in Europe by 2020, two years after ditching gasoline in North America. However, there’s a chance the automaker’s incoming CEO might relegate the badge to the scrap heap of history.

German newspaper Handelsblatt (via Automotive News Europe) reports that, in a time of belt tightening, Smart’s money-losing ways are weighing heavily on Daimler brass.

According to a company insider, the automaker’s future CEO, Ola Kallenius might pull the plug after replacing the mustachioed Dr. Z in May. Kallenious has “no scruples about killing the brand if necessary,” the source claimed, adding that Dieter Zetsche’s successor has no history with the brand.

Daimler doesn’t make a habit of revealing Smart’s financial performance, though analysts claim the division’s losses amount to billions of dollars since its creation. A report late last year pointed to another potential nail in Smart’s coffin: Daimler’s partnership with Renault. The current-generation Smart Fortwo and overseas-market Forfour share their architecture with the Renault Twingo, but that partnership could soon dissolve, reports claim.

Such a move would leave Daimler hanging; the cost of going it alone would surely seal Smart’s fate.

Globally, sales fell 4.6 percent in 2018, but the move to an all-electric Fortwo in North America for 2018 saw the bottom drop out of domestic Smart demand. With the Fortwo boasting a range of just 58 miles, it’s not surprising. U.S. Smart sales, ironically, fell 58.5 percent in 2018. Through the end of February, some 141 Smarts found buyers in the United States — down 32.2 percent from last year’s already diminished year-to-date volume.

[Image: Daimler AG]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Mar 26, 2019

    So Smart is DB's Saturn, in sense of losing billions and never ever making profits.

    • See 2 previous
    • APaGttH APaGttH on Mar 28, 2019

      @Inside Looking Out ??? I see plenty of Saturns still on the road.

  • Charliej Charliej on Mar 26, 2019

    There are quite a few Smarts down here in Mexico. They are very popular in our narrow streets in the local villages. You see someone in a pickup having to back and fill three times just to turn right at the corner. It makes sense when you think about the village being over four hundred ninety years old. Streets used to be much narrower and they have not got any wider over the years. Smarts and Nissan Marches are the cars that make sense here. I leave my Ford Escape at home most days and just ride my Honda motor scooter. It goes placed the Smart can't. By the way, I am in my mid seventies and hoping to last for at least the next three years. I want to be around for the five hundredth anniversary of the founding of my town.

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