Daimler AG announced that Robert Bosch GmbH have signed an agreement to establish a 50:50 joint venture for electric-motors. The venture, which is still subject to approval by antitrust authorities, is to be set up under the name EM-motive GmbH. EM-motive GmbH will develop and produce innovative electric-motors for future Mercedes-Benz and Smart vehicles. The joint [...]
cars2go, a subsidiary of Daimler North America Corporation, has announced that San Diego will be the first North American city to get a 100 percent electric-vehicle carsharing program. “We’re proud that car2go has chosen to launch the first North American all-electric carsharing service in San Diego,” said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “car2go’s launch here [...]
“Harder, better, faster, stronger…” – the irony that I’m listening to Daft Punk as I write this…anyway. The Smart ForTwo Electric Drive Discoball made an appearance at the 2011 New York Auto Show yesterday. The one-off model designed by Apparatjik for the new film Pixel City, will be displayed for public viewing for the duration [...]
I’m sure a good amount of you will remember the disco years, because I sure as hell don’t…simply because I wasn’t even born yet. But don’t worry, disco has yet to find itself left in the pages of history permanently because, well, DISCO IS BACK BABY! *cue the John Travolta scene from Saturday Night Fever* [...]
The 2011 New York Auto Show is right around the corner (well press days start on April 21, 2011, but you know how we feel about shows). At the show in New York, a jury of 66 distinguished auto journalists from around the world will name the 2011 World Car Award winners including the 2011 [...]
Smart has officially entered the EV game, and in dramatic fashion, Smart USA executive and racing legend Roger Penske personally made the first delivery. The car was delivered to Army Major Mindy Kimball, a big believer in the potential of EVs. The body of the vehicle is the same as those already in production, but [...]
Hertz Corporation and Smart USA announced today that they will bring the Smart ForTwo electric drive vehicles to Connect by Hertz car sharing program and Hertz Rent A Car locations in New York, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. “Hertz’s partnership with smart USA is another strategic element of our long term plan to provide consumers [...]
Daimler AG’s CEO Dieter Zetsche is pushing for the governments to offer consumers invectives to purchase electric-vehicles to help offset the extra cost for manufacturers to build expensive EVs. “Even in the best case, the cost of electric autos might run several thousand euros more than conventional vehicles for the foreseeable future,” Zetsche said. “In [...]
Just yesterday, we reported on news coming out of Germany that Smart is likely to sell fewer than 100,000 units in 2010, down from 114,000 in 2009. Most of that loss is coming form United States where sales are down close to 70 percent to just under 4,000 in the first 7 months of 2010. [...]
Daimler AG announced today that it has kicked off production of its new Smart ForTwo electric-drive EVs at the company’s plant in Hambach, France. The first 1,000 units produced will go to customers participating in various pilot programs across Europe and the United States. The Smart ForTwo electric-drive will be available to the general public [...]
