Smart USA Brings Five-door Models Onto The Market

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

Smart sales have plummeted in the US. The USA division wants to win new customers with a newly developed small car.

Smart USA wants to bring its first vehicle developed jointly with the new Daimler partner Nissan onto the market in the next few months. The five-door Smart should be introduced in the fourth quarter of 2011, announced the automaker on Wednesday in Detroit. The small car is based on a vehicle architecture of the Japanese and is to be sold exclusively in the USA.

Sales minus over 61 percent

The Smart had recently given Daimler little pleasure. In the USA in particular, sales figures plummeted. In the first nine months of 2010, 4779 small cars were sold there, 61.5 percent fewer than in the same period of the previous year. Between January and August, Daimler sold 64,800 Smarts worldwide, 17.5 percent fewer than a year earlier. "We are seeing continuous demand from our customers for a Smart with a larger number of seats," said the President of the Penske Automotive Group, Roger Penske. The car dealer sells the Smart in the USA. It was launched there in 2008.

In the spring of a cooperation agreement, Daimler and RenaultNissan had sealed a cross-shareholding of around three percent each. The carmakers want to work together primarily on small cars and engines. The next generation of the Smart fortwo, a new Smart four-seater and the new Renault Twingo are to be developed based on a common architecture.

From 2013 electric smart for Europe

The two-seaters are to be built in the Smart factory in Hambach, France. The Renault plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, produces the four-seater. The market launches are planned for 2013. The models should also come onto the market with an electric drive right from the start. (dpa)