Production of the smart fortwo electric drive Hambach, France, Begins now Options

[Mike T]

Courtesy of Daimler Media Services

Production of the smart fortwo electric drive Hambach, France
Stuttgart, Germany, Nov 19, 2009

Production of 1,000 units begins
· First European electric vehicle fully operational in everyday use
· Available to the general public as of 2012

Hambach, France / Stuttgart, Germany --- This week, Daimler AG started production of the smart fortwo electric drive at the smart plant in Hambach, France. In a first step, 1,000 vehicles will be provided to customers participating in various mobility projects in major cities in Europe and the U.S., in order to generate broad feedback on electric driving under everyday conditions.

Marc Langenbrinck, Managing Director of the smart brand: “With the start of the series production of the smart fortwo electric drive, the Hambach plant enters a new era – at the same time, the smart fortwo emphazises its pioneering role on the way to individual mobility with local zero-emissions in cities and urban areas. Its innovative battery-electric drive makes the smart fortwo electric drive the ideal vehicle for the city: it combines responsibility to the environment with driving fun and joie de vivre in a virtually perfect manner.”

The second-generation smart fortwo electric drive started now is equipped with the most modern lithium-ion-battery. As of 2012, the smart fortwo electric drive will be produced as a regular part of the smart product portfolio and will regularly be sold through the smart sales network.

First Milestones in 2007 and 2008
The smart brand has taken a pioneering role in electric mobility since 2007. Back then, 100 smart fortwo electric drives of the first generation went into practical customer operation under everyday conditions of city traffic in London. Feedback from this project has been very positive right from the start and confirmed the high degree of maturity of this vehicle concept.

Just one year later, the company introduced the second generation - which is now being produced - with an even more advanced electric drive and an innovative, highly efficient lithium-ion battery. Lithium-ion technology has decisive advantages over other types of batteries including higher performance, shorter charging times, a long life and high reliability. In addition, a smart fortwo electric drive can be charged at a regular household power outlet.

A story of success: The smart Plant in Hambach
The smart plant in Hambach was inaugurated in 1997. Since 1998, it has produced the smart fortwo, since 2007 in its current generation. In 2008, more than 800 employees of the plant and some further 800 people employed by seven system partners produced about 140,000 units of the smart fortwo. In September 2008, the brand celebrated its tenth anniversary along with the 1-millionth smart fortwo produced at the Hambach plant.

The Hambach plant has represented an innovative production concept since its beginning: The assembly line in the shape of a plus sign has been designed to optimally meet the demands of assembly and logistics and ensures highly efficient production processes. This principle enables the system partners to supply modules directly to the assembly line, which reduces transport and logistics efforts to a minimum and hereby also provides an advantage regarding ecological aspects. In addition, the environmentally friendly and cost effective paint shop, an energy concept with numerous savings opportunities and the construction principle of the vehicles ensure that the ecological product responsibility of the smart brand is translated into the production.

About smart
Environmental friendliness and contemporary functionality have been defining features of the smart fortwo ever since it was launched more than ten years ago. Since then its innovative concept has combined sustainable, forward-looking technologies with individual urban mobility. With a length of just over two and a half meters, the extremely compact and fuel-efficient vehicle brings its occupants to their destination comfortably and safely. Its distintive design made smart an automotive lifestyle icon which shows that mobility, responsibility to the environment and joie de vivre are compatible with one another. The smart fortwo has established a class of its own.

Today, smart is present in 41 markets around the globe, with most recent market launches in China and Brazil. Germany, Italy, and the U.S. are key markets.

Further information from Daimler is available on the Internet at
www.media.daimler.com

This post has been edited by Mike T: Nov 19 2009 - 12:24 PM

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[Mike T]

With the Leaf at that price, smart's ED will be a limp performer in comparison....

[gordo.bernard]

"There's a gauge on the dash that tells you the percentage of charge you've got left, how much power you're using, and when the on-board charger has kicked in."

Does this imply there is a charger that runs on fuel and it "kicks in"?

Is this true?

[Mike T]

It's a braking energy recovery system like the Prius etc.

[smart142]

Smart Fortwo Ed

the way ahead for electric cars?Smart's second-generation Fortwo Electric Drive could transform city motoring – with the help of subsidies and easier recharging

Adam Gabbatt The Observer, UK

Sunday 4 July 2010

At the launch of Smart's second-generation electric car last week, Quentin Willson – best known as Jeremy Clarkson's former Top Gear co-host – quoted Aldous Huxley describing how "speed is the only truly modern sensation" in the novel Brave New World.

"Now you've got silent speed," Willson said. "I challenge any motoring nutters to get into one of these electric cars and not be completely blown away."
Except the thing about the Smart Ed – or Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, to give the vehicle its proper title – is that it is not silent. It is whiney. It seems to loathe acceleration, emitting a wail when the pedal is depressed and making a sound of relief when the foot is removed.

Never having been in an electric car before, I was cautious before borrowing the Smart Ed for three days. Would pedestrians fail to hear it and step out into the road in front of me? In reality, road crossers looked sharply over their shoulders, wary of being hit by what sounded like a washing machine performing a full spin cycle.

But driving one is surprisingly good fun. After running round London in a Smart for three days, I struggle to think of a car better suited to the rigours of city motoring. Gearless, it resembles a go-kart in its simplicity, and with the main weight of the vehicle evenly distributed along its floor, it handles better than the petrol or diesel versions.

Its acceleration matches that of the petrol model (not necessarily an impressive boast) and while the top speed is limited to 62mph to conserve battery power, as the Smart is designed for city use this limitation will rarely be noticed.

This version is the company's second electric-powered effort, part of a small-scale production run of about 3,000. One hundred of these will be leased for 12 months, at a heavily subsidised price, to drivers in the UK as part of a wider electric car experiment part-funded by the government's technology strategy board.

The quango has pumped £25m into supplying 340 electric cars, of varying manufacture and size, to people across the UK, and both the government and manufacturers will collect information on how they are used, through data loggers fitted to each car.

Smart is the largest contributor to the scheme, with 60 of these second-generation vehicles loaned out in London and 40 in the West Midlands.

The main advantage over the company's first effort, trialled in London more than two years ago, is the increased battery power, which, according to Smart's figures, gives a range of 84 miles as opposed to 50.

Another obstacle, however, is charging the car. Living in a ground floor flat with no parking space, this issue was eventually resolved by wrestling the communal bin out of its usual location, much to the bemusement of a crowd of children. After backing the car into the bin's normal position, hurling the yellow charging cable through a flatmate's window, locking the car, entering said flatmate's room and plugging the charging cable into a normal plug socket, I was ready to go.

If the car charged in 30 minutes, or even an hour, it might just about be bearable. As it is, it takes eight hours to charge from 0% to 100%, which is a little too long to deprive neighbours of their refuse unit.

Recognising the problem of home charging, supporters argue that increasing the number of electric cars is dependent on increasing the number of publicly accessible charging points. As it is, there are fewer than 300 in the UK, the vast majority of them in the capital.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has pledged to expand the number of points in the capital to 25,000 by 2015, but a bigger threat to the success of electric cars may be looming. Last week business secretary Vince Cable pointedly refused to confirm the former Labour government's pledge to subsidise new electric cars by up to £5,000 – sparking a letter of warning from manufacturers, who are now concerned that the new government is jeopardising the switch to green cars.

Given that, at the moment, the cost of batteries makes electric cars significantly more expensive than their more traditional counterparts, the loss of the subsidy could be a huge blow for the bid to boost their numbers on the road.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Smart says it is "extremely difficult to estimate even a ballpark figure" on how much the electric drive will cost. However judging by other electric car makers, it is unlikely to be cheap.

On average, electric cars tend to cost at least £10,000 more than similar-sized petrol or diesels. The Nissan Leaf goes on sale next February at £28,350 – around £10,000 more than an equivalent petrol or diesel, while the Mitsubishi iMiEV is priced at £38,699 – four times the cost of the petrol version.

For the extra money, purchasers will save almost £800 per year (assuming 10,000 miles a year) in fuel costs compared with a petrol smart, getting a vehicle that costs less than £2 to fully charge and just 2p per mile to run.

But the electric smart will reduce CO2 emissions by 2.6 tonnes per year over 10,000 miles when compared with the industry average.

Adam Gabbatt
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Source.
with pictures,

[smart142]

Smart goes electric with new car aimed at reclaiming sales

By Clifford Atiyeh

Globe Staff / July 8, 2010

The tiny Smart car, fighting sluggish US sales, is getting a jolt under the seats.

That is where the lithium-ion battery pack sits in the new electric version of the two-seater, located where its 8.7-gallon gas tank used to be.

The Smart ForTwo Electric Drive made its local debut yesterday at the Herb Chambers dealership in Somerville. Taking a cue from BMW, which leased its prototype electric Mini Cooper last year to 500 American drivers, Smart is bringing 250 test models of its electric car to the United States. They will be available through special lease programs, but most will be sold to corporate fleets.

Smart plans to build 1,500 before official production begins in 2012. The four-year lease is expected to cost $31,500, about $10,000 more than the most expensive gasoline-powered Smart, according to Derek Kaufman, one of the brand’s vice presidents.

“What we’re really trying to promote here is the electrification of transportation,’’ he said.

The Smart car, made by Daimler AG, was introduced in Europe in 1998, and brought to the US market two years ago, when gas prices hovered around $4. Nearly 25,000 of the tiny two-seaters were sold that year.

Now that fuel prices have ebbed, Smart has struggled to market a microcar with scant luggage space and average fuel economy. Smart’s US sales through June are down 61 percent over last year, with only 577 sold last month. Herb Chambers, who owns two Smart dealerships, says that in a “good month,’’ he sells up to 20 of the cars.

“If fuel were $4 a gallon, there wouldn’t be a car sitting here,’’ Chambers said in his Somerville showroom.

Other than green wheels, decals, and two circular gauges atop the dashboard to show battery life and available power, there’s no apparent difference from the regular Smart. Power cables stow inside the tailgate, and the motor and other electrical components hide under the cargo floor.

Despite adding roughly 300 pounds worth of batteries engineered by California-based Tesla Motors, the 8-foot, 10-inch ForTwo barely weighs a ton. Maximum speed tops out at 60 miles per hour and its range is 84 miles. A complete charge from a standard outlet takes about eight hours.

Later this year, a wave of electric cars is expected to go on sale from Nissan, Chevrolet, Ford, and Coda, a California start-up. Buyers of electric cars can qualify for up to $7,500 in federal tax credits.

Clifford Atiyeh can be reached at catiyeh@globe.com.
.......................'
Source.

[Mike T]

The Leaf will be cheaper and so will the Volt. GM just announced that a lease for the Volt will be $350 US a month over 3 years with $2500 down.

This is $250 per month LESS than the smart ED. Kiss of death for the smart ED I am afraid.

[SameGuy]

The price for the production smart electric drive has yet to be announced. That €500 or $600 figure that keeps floating around is for one of the extremely-limited-pre-production test fleet cars, probably to try to recoup some of the $100 Million they put into lame-duck Tesla Motors.

[Mike T]

So, given the choice between a "pre-production" smart ED and a "regular production" Leaf or Volt at close to half the cost, will smart even be able to lease any of them?

[SameGuy]

Most of them will be going to fleet (corporate) customers just like with the 450 EV trial in London. Those agreements are likely already in place for the most part. Also, the Volt is only "cheaper" based on the estimated monthly lease payment that is using GM's early guess of a very high buyback value. The MSRP is still an other-worldly US$41,000 for an economy car with compact dimensions.

[Mike T]

Auto- Motor und Sport tested the smart ED in their May 2010 issue and found that it was not quite fully baked.

The battery pack in particular came in for heavy criticism - it alone costs over $21,000 to replace, the car has a test range of 100 km in perfect conditions (75 or less in cold weather or driven hard), the acceleration is 33% slower than claimed by smart (26.7 seconds to the top speed of 100 km/h - and you thought the cdi was slow!), at German electricity prices, the car costs slightly more to run than a 451 cdi.

On the plus side was the absence of mechanical noise at speed and the poky gearbox of the other smarts is abolished.

The 700 Euro/month leasing rate (about a grand in $) includes insurance and maintenance (what maintenance?).

This does not sound to me like the revolution in mobility that was hoped for by some. Perhaps the production version in 2012 will be better?

[SameGuy]

IINM the 2012 "full production" version will also be limited-run, with full-full production now slated for the new fortwo in 2013. Also, Tesla will be out of the picture for the production model, whose battery pack will likely be sourced out of Japan.

This post has been edited by SameGuy: Aug 19 2010 - 06:44 AM