PARIS — While it may be a bit early to plunk down a deposit, expect to see Smart brings its new fortwo ED to the United States, possibly as soon as late 2009. With a hybrid-electric Mercedes also up his sleeve, Daimler’s chief confirmed to PM that the electrified Smart car was headed across the pond—and that it’s just a matter of time.
The ED, short for electric drive, is Smart’s new battery car, which can deliver up to 150 miles on an overnight charge of its lithium-ion battery pack. It joins an expanding line-up of high-mileage powertrains offered by the Mercedes-Benz sibling division, an assortment that also includes diesel and the new Micro Hybrid Drive, or MHD system—all of which PM recently test drove here across the pond after the fortwo’s decidedly slow start.
“Electrifying cars is one option for safer, sustainable mobility,” declared Thomas Weber, technology chief for parent company Daimler AG.
A small number of fortwo EDs are already being field tested in London, and the program is rapidly being expanded to other cities, including Berlin, where a network of charging stations has been set up to support what has been dubbed eMobility Berlin.
Smart expects to have 100 of the battery cars in place in Berlin in the near future, and will continue growing the eMobility project to other urban areas over the coming months. According to Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, the goal is to have 1000 of the EDs in operation around the world by the end of 2009.
Smart’s battery car “will be in the States, though the final decision [as to the timeframe] hasn’t been made,” Zetsche said in an interview with PM. “I consider it likely we will see some of that 100 in the U.S.” But if not, Zetsche added, expect to see an American version by 2012, when Smart expects to push production up to somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000.
