Smart's Dealerships Are About to Become More Exclusive Than Ferrari's

Daimler announced in February that it would stop sending gasoline-powered models to North America this summer and move exclusively to EVs after inventory levels decline. Dealers had until the end of June to decide if they wanted to be a part of the next wave of personal mobility.

With Smart swapping to electric-only drivetrains for U.S. retailers, we assumed the majority of Mercedes-Benz dealers still clinging onto the microscopic Fortwo would abandon it — as would every standalone Smart store still in existence.

Smart only sold 54 electric models within the United States between January and May, so it’s understandable that this summer saw over two-thirds of all retailers opting out of the deal. That leaves Smart with only 27 sanctioned stores within the United States, making it more exclusive than Lotus, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and even Rolls-Royce.

Read more
  • Tassos Let's be clear. Only a god damned fool would, after their record of 50 years of HORRIBLE RELIABILITY AND HUGE REPAIR BILLS, buy a god damned VW, of any kind, at any price. So of course I did NOT read this article.
  • JMII What do Ford dealers do with a bunch of traded in RAMs? I guess that assumes RAM owners will actually take the bait on this "deal". I see a few Lighting's here and there, for reasons unknown I see way more Cyberpukes, but maybe that is just because the fridge on wheels sticks out like a sore thumb.
  • Arthur Dailey Why does the headline say 'Tiguan' when the column is in regards to the Taos?
  • Lou_BC GM's tracking system would issue a report on seatbelt use. Rarely was I at 100% according to it. It started recording the moment you sit down to the moment you click the belt into the buckle. I was sitting in a parking lot waiting and it gave me a very low score............. That was the sort of stuff GM was selling to insurance companies. ............. They claim to have stopped monitoring this data. I wonder if they are still selling it?
  • Bd2 a subset of MAGA , called eMAGA is a particular fan of this truck