History

The year is 2012 and Mercedes is just introducing its "Electric Drive for all occasions" car family. Daimler was the first classic manufacturer with the full range of modern electric cars. The smart fortwo electric drive was already in its third generation, the B-Class was in the middle of development and came onto the market in 2014. In addition, the SLS AMG electric drive was about to go into series production.
Daimler's cooperation with Tesla was at its peak and both companies had the technology in their pockets for a prosperous future.

Daimler had a complete ecosystem around electric cars. Aside from the range of cars, everything was available for an entire electric car ecosystem. For example, their own windmill, so that all electric cars are climate-neutral, and they had already thought about repairing batteries. Plus their own cell production in Germany and so much more. It's a pity how you left all that and 10 years later have to give big discounts on the EQS so that someone in China still buys it.

Today, Dieter Zetsche drives a smart #1 and OEMs are considering buying additional software from Tesla. Reason enough to take a look at what Daimler has built up over the years and then neglected.

It's been 25 years since smart launched the fortwo and started production in Hambach. Over time, of course, there were a lot of small smart fortwos and a total of four generations of the electric drive. But also many other cool other cars.

BRABUS, Crossblade, Roadster and even an SUV in 2004. Let's go back into the history of smart and keep an eye on the most notable cars and milestones.
smart is also talking about smart times again...

smart is 25 years old and already has a remarkable history: The fourth generation of the smart fortwo is now fully electric and very few people know that Tesla played a major role. With the 25th birthday on the occasion, let's look at the four generations.

After the 1st generation (2006) of the electric smart was based on technology that was 10 years old, smart urgently needed external help. The choice fell on the then still very young Tesla startup. Today it is common knowledge that Tesla developed the 2nd generation (2009-2012) of the smart electric drive for Mercedes. What is less known, however, is that it was heavily based on the original Tesla Roadster. The first prototype of the smart ED2 's electronics even thought it's a Tesla roadster and had all its components. Including the roadster-specific on-board computer, display and 248 hp rear-wheel drive motor.

Reason enough to take a closer look at the original Tesla Roadster and its interesting history. Because not only smart as we know it today is based on his shoulders, but also the entire Tesla company. In this article I would like to bring you closer to the Roadster and therefore I spoke to David Lyons. He was Tesla employee number 12 and worked at Tesla from 2004 to 2008 as Director of Engineering for everything to do with the roadster's powertrain.

In the last weeks we have learned how Nicolas Hayek failed with his swatch car at Volkswagen and that Daimler Benz has been working with Professor Johann Tomforde on a similar project since the 1970s.

The following article is about how the two joint their forces between 1992 and 1998 to make the dream of an electric city car a reality. After the swatch group and Daimler Benz had found each other, it was time to turn the projects of the two companies into a joint car.

Last week we learned that Nicolas Hayek failed with the swatch car at Volkswagen. After that his path would lead him to Daimler Benz. A microcar project was already underway there, which fitted perfectly with Mr. Hayek's ideas.

But how did it come about and what did the first drawings from 1969 look like?

The man behind the article is Professor Johann Tomforde. In this article you can find out how his diploma thesis became the smart fortwo 30 years later.

It was a long way before smart delivered the first production car in 1998. We all know the story of how Mr. Hayek came from swatch and wanted to build the infamous swatch car. A small, fully electric two-seater whose name the smart fortwo still bears in common parlance today.

But how was it really?

Over the last 5 years I have collected everything possible, written together and thought about it. This has now become the trilogy of the smarts story. The first part is about how Hayek's swatch car failed at VW. In the next two weeks I will then go into how it went on after that.

Everyone is talking about the upcoming all-electric smart formore, which will be presented at the IAA in Munich. It will be built together with Geely and is intended to realign the brand. In the future, they don't just want to build small cars. They also want to build main cars and start that with an SUV.

But the idea for a smart SUV is almost as old as the brand itself. Smart was at the topic as early as 2004 and developed the smart formore at full speed. During my research on the subject,…