smart EMOTION

I drove a Microlino and had a long talk with its owner. A super cool little car and I can't get one question out of my head:

Is this the modern smart fortwo replacement?

The fortwo is still being built, but production seems to slowly being phased out. Meanwhile, Microlino is slowly ramping up series production and has been delivering to private customers for several months now. Reason enough to take a closer look.

With the expected introduction of the smart #1, smart drivers will finally have the luxury of having a heat pump. Reason enough to take a closer look at this exciting technology and, above all, to answer one question: Where does a heat pump actually get the heating energy from, if not from the car's battery?

In this article I'm answering these questions. In addition, I have explained all relevant terms in more detail in my wiki and linked them here in the article.

We've been almost 10 years now, and of course we've already tried out a lot of things when it comes to home charging. I only recently reported on Schuko charging. In the meantime, our setup has grown to 5 private charging points and, most recently, also a public 22 kW charging station. Everything together on a house connection, with the corresponding load management and the public charging station including German calibration law and billing rules.

In this article, I'll go over how our charging park has grown, what our experiences are, and how to accommodate it all without a blackout.

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.

The first smarties with a battery rental contract are now turning 10 years old and in the coming months and years this of course will increase. This raises a question I'm getting asked more and more:
The 10-year rental contract is expiring and I received an offer from smart to buy a battery. Should I buy it?

In this article I would like to give you an overview of your options and of course I will also tell you how I will deal with the rental battery of my own 2013 smart.