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Jeremy Bass15 Jun 2012
NEWS

Electric smart enters production

Bah Hambach! Daimler commences manufacture of smart fortwo EV at French facility

Daimler AG has opened the order books for its smart fortwo EV and started production at its Smartville plant in the north-eastern French town of Hambach.


The company has invested more than €200 million in upgrading the site to integrate the new drivetrain into the standard fortwo production line.


The degree of integration the company has achieved in the plant is remarkable, plant boss Dr Joachim Betker said in a statement. “It means we’re now optimally utilising the smart vehicle concept’s imminent potential for different drive systems.”


Smart chief Dr Annette Winkler said in a statement the expansion of the plant to accommodate production of the new EV is an important milestone in cementing the brand’s future. The new EV helps further expand ‘our leading position in urban mobility and making fully electric driving accessible to everyone’, she said.


The company is continuing to ramp up investment in the plant for this and the next generation of smart product, Dr Winkler added. “And I am convinced that this is money extremely well invested.”


Australia’s chances of seeing the smart fortwo electric drive (its full name is almost longer than the vehicle…) are modest at the moment, local spokesman David McCarthy told motoring.com.au. “We’re investigating the idea, of course. If we can get RHD, we’d certainly like to bring a small fleet out here for trialling, do the market research and make our mind up from there.”


At this point, there’s a major sticking point on price. “As things stand, we’re looking at an entry price of about $30K. That’s a premium of about 50 per cent on the already very frugal mhd petrol hybrid model, so you’d want to be very keen on the idea indeed to want one.”


If the federal government wants to encourage consumer interest in vehicles like the smart EV, it might want to take a look at import duty and GST regimes as they stand, he added. “I mean, removing import duty and GST would carve about 12 per cent off the price. That still doesn’t make it awfully special, but it’s a good start.


“And if they don’t want to forgo the money up front, what about, say, a two year trial scheme? You know – ‘you promise to take the car for two years, give us your feedback on what it’s like to own and we’ll refund your duty and GST after’. There’s a lot of potential in that. Firstly, it gives consumers an incentive to buy in, and secondly, government and industry could build a very valuable user information database.”


In Europe, the electric runabout is available in coupe and cabriolet forms, with the battery pack available for lease or outright purchase. Without the battery, the coupé starts at €18,910 ($23,750), the cabrio at €22.000,00 ($27,650), with battery rental set at €65 ($82) a month. The coupé with battery costs €23,680 ($29,750), the cabrio €26,770,00 ($33,600).


Drawing power from a 17.6 kWh battery pack, the two-seater’s 55kW electric motor gets it from 0-60km/h in 4.8 seconds (that’s 60, folks, not 100…) and on to a top speed of 125km/h. Daimler claims a range of about 145km in city traffic.




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Written byJeremy Bass
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