Smart (marque)

"Smart Car" redirects here. For cars with artificial intelligence, see Intelligent car. For other uses, see Smart car (disambiguation).
Smart Automobile Co., Ltd.
Company typeJoint venture
IndustryAutomotive
Founded
  • February 1994; 30 years ago (February 1994) (marque)
  • 2019; 5 years ago (2019) (joint venture)
Headquarters
Ningbo
,
China
Key people
Tong Xiangbei (CEO)
ProductsElectric vehicles
Owners
Subsidiaries
  • Smart Europe GmbH
  • Smart Automobile Sales Co., Ltd.
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese智马达汽车有限公司
Traditional Chinese智馬達汽車有限公司
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhìmǎdá Qìchē Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī
Websitesmart.com
Footnotes / references
[1][2][3][4]

Smart (stylized in lowercase) is a German automotive marque established in 1994. Smart Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture established by Mercedes-Benz AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2019 and aimed at producing Smart-badged cars in China to be marketed globally. The venture is headquartered in Ningbo. Originally, the marque was known for producing microcars and subcompacts, primarily the Fortwo and Forfour, at Smartville in Hambach, Moselle, France and additionally at Renault's Revoz plant (Novo Mesto, Slovenia). It now produces small battery electric vehicles at a manufacturing plant in China, with distribution, marketing and aftersales activities in Europe handled by Smart Europe GmbH, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.

The marque was founded in 1994 by Micro Compact Car AG (MCC), a joint venture between SMH and Daimler-Benz. MCC became a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler-Benz in 1998, and was subsequently renamed MCC smart GmbH, then smart GmbH. smart GmbH was then absorbed by DaimlerChrysler (later Daimler AG) in 2006, making smart a marque within the Mercedes-Benz Cars division.[5]

The name Smart derives from the cooperation of the Swiss company Swatch with Mercedes-Benz: "Swatch Mercedes ART".[6]

  1. ^ "Management". smart Automobile. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Organisations". smart Automobile. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  3. ^ "smart and PROTON sign MoA on regional partnership" (Press release). smart Automobile. 19 January 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  4. ^ "法律声明" [Legal notice] (in Chinese). smart Automobile. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Daimler AG IR Annual Report 2017" (PDF). Mercedes-Benz Group.
  6. ^ Chang, Richard S. (30 June 2010). "Swatch Founder Also Gave Birth to the Smart CarT". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 December 2018.