A partnership between Daimler/Mercedes-Benz and Penske Automotive began importing the cars into the United States in January.
"The smart fortwo has the opportunity to change the landscape of our highways by offering a powerful combination of fun-to-drive aspects, safety innovations and functionality – all with great fuel economy," says Dave Schembri, president of Penske's smart USA subsidiary.
The vehicle's "adorability" hits home with Boston's distinguished Colonnade Hotel, which has a contest under way to come up with a clever name for its house "Smaht Cah," one of a hundred of these zippy vehicles currently traversing Massachusetts roads.
(The official moniker may be the lower case "smart fortwo," but it persistently remains a "Smart Car" in common usage.)
In Cleveland Heights, Ohio, you get a free smart fortwo thrown in with the deal if you purchase an ecologically oriented luxury condominium unit.
Smart fortwo customization has already hit the streets of Los Angeles, as Al & Ed's Autosound has introduced a "Limited Edition Ed Hardy Smart Car" personally autographed and individually numbered by French fashion designer Christian Audigier, who has partnered with Hardy, a noted American artist/tattooist, to create the line. Each vehicle comes adorned with a seven-layer tattoo-inspired satin paint scheme, premium leather seats with tattoo-embroidered suede inserts, integrated Bluetooth and navigation systems, interior accents finished in piano black gloss and a specialized Ed Hardy edition Kenwood touch screen AM/FM/CD/DVD player.
Exterior upgrades include Ed Hardy-edition badging, satin black multi-spoke wheels containing an Ed Hardy "Tiger" center hub cap, along with a chrome dual tip exhaust from Doug Thorley Headers. Plush floor and rear mats with an embroidered Hardy logo are also included.
"These 'Ed Hardy Smart Cars' are rolling works of art and are the ultimate statement in individual expression," says Al & Ed's President Gabi Mashal. The package retails for $22,765, and that doesn't include the cost of the car itself.
Now being sold at 69 smart centers in 31 states, a 2008 smart fortwo comes off the showroom floor in three factory trim levels at suggested retail pricing ranging from $11,590 to $16,590.
Upon its American debut, 10,000 of the vehicles were moved out the door in less than six months.
"This is a landmark sales figure in a very short timeframe, demonstrating that increasing numbers of U.S. drivers are discovering all that the smart fortwo has to offer," says Schembri. "The vehicle is attracting an overwhelming number of buyers who want a solution to high gas prices, a way to reduce their environmental footprint, plus a vehicle that offers urban mobility on congested city streets in a package that is fun to drive."
"Had we not invented it 10 years ago, we would have to do so now," observes Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler's chairman and chief executive at Mercedes-Benz. "The smart fortwo is a unique car that combines driving pleasure with lifestyle and exemplary fuel efficiency. The two-seater convinces customers worldwide, thanks to its outstanding safety features, the distinctive smart design, as well as top quality, reliability and economy."
Preparations for the smart fortwo began in the early 1990s as a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Nicolas Hayek, inventor of the Swatch line of colorful timepieces. Hayek's idea was to create an affordable, environmentally sound "ultra-urban" car. Initially nicknamed the "Swatchmobile," the smart designation came from the acronym "Swatch Mercedes ART." The engineers had a design objective similar to that of the French-built Citroën 2CV of the 1940s.
Occupant safety was a key challenge, which was addressed through a tridion safety cell — a "hard shell" surrounding those inside with an energy displacing system of longitudinal and transverse structural members. Electronic Stability Control, ABS brakes, removable door panels and a milieu of energy efficient and recyclable component materials were other features applied to the vehicle.
Full development of the concept started in 1994, and the smart fortwo made its debut in 1997 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, where its uniqueness attracted considerable positive attention.
Production at a newly constructed plant in the French city of Hambach commenced in 1998; Daimler-Benz assumed total ownership of the endeavor that same year.
The factory in Hambach, routinely referred to as Smartville, has a footprint in the form of a plus-sign. Each wing contains production operations with final inspections and refinishing taking place in the multi-storied center, where administrative functions are also housed.
Work is done in two shifts in which one vehicle has a throughput time of 81/2 hours. Final assembly takes 41/2 hours; production capacity is about 750 units per day. To keep employee motivation at a high level, eight of them at a time are organized into teams with a relatively flat hierarchy. Production is halted for 15 minutes each week to permit "reflection" by the team members. Through a "Eureka" system, all personnel have the opportunity to proffer suggestions for improvements.
Lauded as an ecologically sound innovative engineering marvel, the building's exterior surfaces are made from a material called Trespa, 80 percent of which comes from fast-growing European timber. The complex is nestled in the hills of the Lorraine region amid ample green space including fields, meadows, fruit tree orchards and a nature preserve to more fully integrate with the environment.
Typical automotive production materials such as formaldehyde, CFC and asbestos have been eliminated from the process. Airborne emissions have been cut by up to 95 percent.
Thermal insulation minimizes heat loss; excess hot air from the injection molding machines is used to warm paint booths applying a powder coating that consumes 40 percent less energy than conventional painting methods with zero solvent emissions and no water consumption. Powder overspray is collected, and 98 percent is reusable.
Most of the suppliers are clustered close by. Using a technique known as modular sourcing, entire sections of the vehicle arrive via just-in-time delivery on a just-in-sequence basis. Component vendors have access to the individual order data of each vehicle. Because the smart fortwo is produced only on-order, they are stored for only a few days before hitting the rails at the company-owned train depot.
American suppliers wishing to export to French OEMs are advised to locate within the vicinity of the plant they wish to serve because just-in-time delivery has become standard operating procedure, according to Stephanie Pencole, France auto trade specialist for the U.S. Commercial Service.
The French Vehicle Equipment Industries Association (FIEV) "has mapped the evolution of the supply chain, and it is obvious that French manufacturers encourage their key suppliers to co-locate in manufacturing plants adjacent to the in-country assembly operations, or in European countries close by," she reports.
"The automotive parts market in France is dominated by big multinational firms, many of them American with French or European operations," says Pencole. "There is little or no room for mid-sized exporters in this very closed environment, where competitive requirements, transportation costs, etc. make it very difficult for firms not physically established here to sell their products."
Overall auto production in the nation is down, yet North American parts imports increased in 2006 and 2007 to reach $971 million. "However, the trend is still to source in foreign countries such as China, Japan, Taiwan and India to the detriment of the U.S.A.," Pencole adds.
France has long been a leader in automotive innovations, starting in 1770 with Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot and his fardier �apeur experimental steam-driven artillery tractor, widely believed to be the first car-type vehicle. In 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled device powered by electricity.
Germany's Karl Benz is credited with the first production of an automobile -- also a three-wheeler — in 1888, and he in-turn licensed Parisian bicycle maker Emile Roger to follow suit in France. Roger was able to achieve considerable success as the French readily accepted the advent of the horseless carriage. (Gottleib Daimler, a fellow countryman of Benz, was also hard at work developing vehicle technology.)
The first company in the world specifically formed to build cars was reportedly France's Panhard et Lavassor firm in 1889, which also introduced the first four-cylinder engine. Armand Peugeot began producing his line of vehicles two years later. By 1903, France was manufacturing close to 50 percent of the world's fledgling vehicle population. The first Fords were exported to France in 1907.
