With a gasoline, diesel, hybrid and now an all-electric variant, it has a propulsion solution for any contingency. [xfloat=left]http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Smart_Fortwo_EV_in_San_Jose.jpg[/xfloat]Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – Sept. 3, 2008 Smart Fortwo EV -- New Li-Ion’s may allow over 80 miles AER and an 80 mph top speed. Hambach – Ten years ago one of the world's most unusual vehicles was launched. It was both new and different compared to vehicles of the time given it was a compact with just two seats and measured slightly less than eight feet in length. Today, the one millionth Smart Fortwo rolled off the assembly line at the plant in Hambach, France - a Silver Passion Fortwo equipped with the 71 HP engine and micro hybrid drive (mhd). Along with the production milestone, its tenth birthday was celebrated with Daimler presenting the next evolution in propulsion, the Smart Fortwo electric drive (ED). Smart Fortwo goes Electric At the end of 2007, Smart started a pilot project in London with the Smart Fortwo electric drive. With selected fleet customers, testing began in earnest with 100 electric drive equipped vehicles to gain real-world experience. Not only are Fortwo’s with electric drive extremely quiet but are also highly efficient and produce no local emissions. As a zero-emission car, the Smart Fortwo ED enjoys tax advantages and forgoes London’s infamous congestion charge. This makes it a particularly attractive as an environmentally friendly alternative in a larger city. Production of the electrically driven Fortwo with lithium-ion battery technology is planned for 2010. "From the end of 2009 we will produce a small series of the smart fortwo electric drive with a lithium-ion battery", Dr. Dieter Zetsche said. The predecessor of the smart fortwo electric drive, the Smart Fortwo EV (electric vehicle), celebrated its world premiere in 2006. Since 2007 a fleet with a total of 100 smart fortwo electric drives of the first generation has been tested in everyday service in London. The first Smart Fortwo EV was equipped with a sodium-nickel-chloride battery; the second generation will include a lithium-ion battery with higher performance and a much longer service life. Smart Success The Smart Fortwo is extremely popular with Italians and Germans with two-thirds of all units produced sold in these two countries. More importantly, one in every five Smart’s sold in Italy and Germany is the 71mpgUS combined diesel variant Smart Fortwo cdi. In addition to the European cdi turbo diesel, the Smart Fortwo can currently be equipped with a gasoline engine including mhd (micro hybrid drive). Mhd uses a an intelligent start/stop system that has been available to customers in Europe since the autumn of 2007. This version automatically shuts down the engine as soon as the car's speed falls below 5 mph and the brake pedal is depressed. With release of the brake pedal, the engine starts back up again. Overall fuel consumption of the mhd equipped Smart Fortwo’s is reduced by almost 10% vs. the conventionally powered 61 and 71 HP models. Starting next month, both the 61 HP and 71 HP gasoline models will be equipped with the user-friendly start/stop system technology standard.
So... how come a Smart in Europe gets 71 MPG, but we get stuck with 40 MPG in the USA. I'd consider owning a 71 MPG Smart. But at 40 MPG, it's better to own a Yaris.
Hi Indigo: ___A 71 mpgUS on the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) would be about 50 to 55 mpg rating here on the 08 EPA. Still great but the .8L cdi is not a particularly efficient engine given the power output even in the lightweight Smart. ___Good Luck ___Wayne
You can thank the big .3 and their buds, the oil industry for that. They know how to talk to (lobby) our congressmen so that they agree with the priorities (special interests) unique to their industry. The result? Restraint of trade camouflaged as EPA environmental legislation, and a whole host of other "nifty" ways they have come up with to keep the competition out. You say that they should not be able to do that because free competition is the backbone of capitalism? Well then, they (the auto/oil cartel) would say, you have every right to lobby your special interest to our honorable congressmen, but remember what you will need for them to listen to you. Money talks; facts and figures showing what they are doing to our country, economy and the world will walk. So that is where a tiny portion of of their "windfall profits" go!
I'll have to keep an eye out for the smart EV. The current fortwo us model got a horrible review from car and driver. The yaris & fit are much better options.
I wonder what the CO2, oxides of sulfur and oxides of nitrogen footprint is for this vehicle's diesel version.
Smart appears to going to sell close to 20,000 units this year in the US - pretty good for a 2 seater in its first year I'd bet that a EV Smart would sell 40-60,000 units in the US
I think the US Smart sucks when my 99 HX M/t beats it's mpg on 87 octane and has more space. The US Smart should have been a 58mpg hwy car on 87 octane given it's size.
I've wondered about that too. The Corolla and plain-old-civic have FE comprable to the Smart, but the former are real cars while the latter is essentially a toy. Now, if this toy car got close of 60 MPG, it would be a wholly different story!
