About Smart Cars
Swatch CEO Nicolas Hayek wanted to make a car that bore the company's name, he wanted to invent a 'Swatchmobile' and so contacted Volkswagen, however at the time they were a struggling company and had to decline the offer. Daimler Benz then decided to go with the project and three co-directors were named to head Smart including engineer and designer, Johann Tomforde and financial administrator Christoph Baubin who were from Daimler-Benz. They were joined by marketing manager Hans Jurg Schar, who had originally led the original Swatch marketing campaigns in the 1980s. Through this partnership 'Smartville' was born which was the first ever Smart factory. This opened in 1994 in Hambach, France and the second assembly plant was opened on October 27, 1997, by French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Tomforde devised a system where the suppliers designed, assembled and installed their modules onto the final version of the car. They did so by using their employers and this saved the company money. They secured contracts with Faurecia to provide the seats, interiors were supplied by VDO and the chassis by Magna.
The first problem arose when choosing the name of the car. Nicolas Hayek wanted to incorporate Swatch into the name, with 'Swatchmobile' but Daimler-Benz refused as they wanted a more neutral name. Therefore the name Smart was decided upon as it is an acronym of Swatch Mercedes Art.
The new Smart City-Coupe was meant to be launched in March 1998; however, Daimler-Benz postponed the launch until October 1998 and this was the first ever Smart car. It was released to the European market. This model received critical acclaim and was compact, reliable and stylish while being affordable to the average consumer, therefore making it an instant hit. It gained huge financial success in the commercial market.
During the late 90s, Smart started to reach out to the global market with Daimler-Benz during this time, buying out the shares that were left in the company, Swatch. This, therefore, gave Smart more economic freedom and they decided to extend and develop their current range of models such as the Smart Forfour sedan which was a four-door, four-seater supermini and was named 'Forfour' as the original City-Coupe was named Fortwo. The Smart Roadster was manufactured between 2003 and 2004.
However, this expansion did not increase profits for the company and they lost nearly 4 billion euros between 2003 to 2006. After suffering heavy financial losses and low sales Smart GmbH was liquidated and all of its operations were taken by DaimlerChrysler directly
Smart also developed cars that entered into the electric-hybrid market and in 2007 they released a 'micro hybrid drive' that was a version of the Fortwo, this was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Smart had made plans to introduce a new car named the 'Formore' that was to be comprised of the body of the ForFour and using the hardware from the Mercedes C-class but this was sadly cancelled due to spending cutbacks within the company.
Smart now operate under Mercedes-Benz Cars, a division of Daimler AG, with only the Fortwo Coupe and Cabrio models being manufactured.