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MikeT

Sales In Canada 2013

42 posts in this topic

smart had a truly dismal start to the year in Canada, selling only 34 cars across the entire country.

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I for one have never seen Smart make any marketing efforts in Canada. Am I alone?BTW, each time I drive by my dealership (Ogilvie Motors here in Ottawa), I see about 5 parked outside on the side as form of display. Just two days ago I went by and saw just one.

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It's the sixth year for the 451 in Canada and it's getting hard to move, so it seems. There are no new engines, nothing else new to get excited about....well, maybe the ED, but they won't sell many of those even if it's a success.

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IMHO the Forfour would sell far easier than the Fortwo because even though almost every car has only 1 person in it, people think they need 4, 5 or 7 seats.

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In the new car biz, you gotta be forever changing. The smart? Move along, folks, nothing new to see here for over half a decade. I think the smart-buying demographic (that's us, folks!) has been fully mined out by now.Bil :sun:

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The other problem, is - warts and all - the cdi spoiled the original Canadian smart owners, and very few of these cdi owners could be persuaded to trade into a 451. Sure there are quite a few here, but overall I doubt that more than 1/3 of cdi owners would seriously consider a 451. I faced this issue myself in October when our first cdi was written off, it would have been just as easy to get a new smart 451 but they were not even on my radar due to middling fuel economy, premium fuel...we were just not interested. Had the 453 been out, we might have considered it.So, the result is that most 451 sales have to be conquest sales as they call them, in other words, first-time smart buyers. But it seems the unique advantage of the cdi is not reproduced in the 451, the staggering fuel economy. In my opinion there needs to be something new to boost the 451 through its last year and a half (too long!) other than new colours (flat grey, wey-hey) - like a turbocharged gas engine. The ED is probably one of the better electric cars on the market but electric cars don't have any penetration at all in North America and that's unlikely to get any better with the advent of the ED.smart's recent strategy in North America reminds me of Peugeot's ridiculous attempt to sell cars here for 30 years: bring one model, with one engine, maybe once in a blue moon offer two models, no engine options for the most part, certainly not the higher performance ones....but they were here for 32 years so maybe smart has a way to go. Maybe they will get serious about this market with the 453.

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When I was speaking with my smart sales guy at the dealership in Kelowna in 2006, he said that when the new model comes out it won't have the diesel engine, so the smart has instantly lost its most significant distinguishing feature and greatest competitive advantage, and you're better off buying a Toyota or something.Guess he saw the writing on the wall. Bil :sun:

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Well really it depends on what the milage on the new smears is when it comes out. If it is thes same as the current one then they will indeed have problems, if it is better than the best smaller cars out there and only need regular then they should do okay, but still not make us diesel owners want to change. I seem to recall that they aren't going to offer diesel in any market, if that is indeed the case they are going to have to make the milage in the gas version a lot better to keep interest in the car.

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60 were sold in February, which is 33% more than the iQ, but that is hardly any consolation.

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When the electric smart goes on sale, will you be able to break out the sales numbers for it?I was just telling a friend yesterday that once it becomes available, I can't see anyone buying a gas smart (for more money!) over the electric one, if they're buying it as a second vehicle.-Iain

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I don't know. I usually get my sales data from Good Car Bad Car and it depends upon how they (and Mercedes-Benz Canada) decide to report it. The most accurate way to get data like this is to download all the VINs of imported smarts and the VINs themselves will tell us which ones have electric and which have gasoline propulsion. William (Huronlad) is doing that now for the 451s.My guess is that the ED will have limited distribution here because worldwide production is likely to be limited to well under 10,000. In a good year, smart can sell 4000 cars in Canada alone. I therefore think that up to 5% of Canadian sales will be of the ED.On a related note, a few days ago I came across a couple of people driving a G2 smart ED and I asked then whether they owned it. They indicated that it was a loaner car from TPM in Nanaimo; their Mercedes SUV was in for a service. They had driven back to Ladysmith from Nanaimo and had experienced range anxiety first hand, as the battery gauge fell more than they expected over the 25 km drive.

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my opinion...an gas smart would be a general use car. an EV would be best as a commuter where you know exactly how many kms you will put on in a day (and to make it pay off you use up as much of the battery as possible). So of course the EV is not for everyone. As soon as they get the real life average range to 180km, I will be very interested. my commute is 90km total so that should be enough of a safety margin....

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Yeah, the official range of the ED is 145 km but as I have seen with the LEAF, you can halve that in cooler, rainy weather.

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This is why I doubt the practicality of full-electric vehicles in Canada, a country where typical temperatures are -10C to -20C for several months of the year. If you don't have a heated garage and an electrical outlet both ends of even a short commute, you're hooped.I think there is more hope for the new high-efficiency fuel cell technologies - recent breakthroughs are showing astounding promise.Bil :sun:

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yes of course a garage at home, does not need to be heated - mine is not. "-10 to -20 for months on end" agreed but it is not like that here these days. I would be fine with an EV as long as the range has enough headroom for bad weather. to get back on topic, I would think sales of the smart should increase with the EV not just remain as is.in the end cars will be fuel cell based but it will take decades.

Edited by robm

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I predict that the real sales numbers of the smart ED will be near zero in Canada, not unlike sales of other electric vehicles, that have pretty much been a rounding error. But I digress ...

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I am readying for the first electric vehicle in our strata. I wrote the bylaw for it last year, spoke on behalf of it and got it 100% approved at our AGM, and we'll soon have a Tesla in the underground.

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smart sales in Canada 2013:

January: 34

February: 60

March: 111

April: 114

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I am readying for the first electric vehicle in our strata. I wrote the bylaw for it last year, spoke on behalf of it and got it 100% approved at our AGM, and we'll soon have a Tesla in the underground.

That is if they are still building them..... :(

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First Tesla supposed to be in the underground parking tomorrow.What do you mean about Tesla not building??? All I found was a reference to Tesla having issues in Texas, because Texas doesn't want to allow manufacturers to sell direct to a customer.I'd love to see sales floors gone with delivery done at a Railway yard... and service done in a low rent district where the shop can actually survive.I wonder if smart sales will drop this year if no new Car2Go locations come on stream?

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What do you mean about Tesla not building??? All I found was a reference to Tesla having issues in Texas, because Texas doesn't want to allow manufacturers to sell direct to a customer.

Oh CRAP! Ignore my previous comment. I got Fisker and Tesla mixed up. It is Fisker that just layed off 75% of their workforce, they probably won't be around much longer. Tesla seems to be taking off. May be time to reply to the job offer I got from Tesla to be a tech for them. :)

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smart sales in Canada 2013:

January: 34

February: 60

March: 111

April: 114

May: 139*

* which is 105 more than the iQ, for those following this!

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