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smart at the Geneva Motor Show 2012

By Adji | Published Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Two world premieres and a European premiere: New developments from smart at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show

smart will be presenting numerous ideas for electric mobility in urban areas at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show – with two wheels and four, with the practical cargo area of a pick-up or the sportiness of a smart BRABUS. The facelifted smart fortwo with a clearly restyled exterior will be a further focus.

The smart for-us translates the practical loading concept of a pickup to the reality of 21st century urban traffic for the first time. With its exterior dimensions it could almost go unnoticed on the loading area of a typical pickup, and it also anything but ordinary under the body. Thanks to the state-of-the-art electric drive with a 55 kW magneto-electric motor the zero-emission smart for-us, which will be celebrating its European premiere in Geneva, is agile and lively to drive.

The spring of 2012 will see the smart fortwo making its mark in a striking new look with an upgraded exterior and a fresh leather/fabric mix in the interior. The substantially revamped smart fortwo sports a markedly more dynamic appearance, featuring a larger radiator grille with integrated logo, striking front aprons in a new design, horizontally arranged LED daytime driving lights, muscular side skirts and modified rear aprons.

New limited series: the smart fortwo sharpred is a real eye-catcher as the intense red of the tridion safety cell and door mirror housing forms a striking contrast to the rest of the exterior in black. The smart fortwo sharpred is available as a coupé and as a cabrio with a 52 kW mhd petrol engine or a 62 kW petrol engine.

From June the further developed smart fortwo electric drive will start winning wide-ranging buyers in more than 30 countries for its innovative and forward-looking drive concept. Driven by a battery supplied by the Daimler subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive for the first time the 55 kW electric motor passes the 120 km/h mark. A new sales model makes the introduction to electric mobility particularly attractive: the sale&care model offers customers an opportunity to buy the vehicle at an attractive price and to lease the battery for a monthly fee.

smart will also be presenting the production version of the trendy and environmentally friendly smart ebike at the Geneva Motor Show. Just a few weeks later, from the end of April, it will be possible to order the electric two-wheeler from smart contractual partners in 16 European countries and in Canada. The first models will be delivered in May 2012. The smart ebike will initially be available in two colour variants at an attractive price.

The smart BRABUS electric drive, which will celebrate its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show, offers a look ahead at the sporty BRABUS version of the smart fortwo electric drive. In addition to modifications to the exterior and interior styling, its drive has been designed for particularly dynamic and powerful acceleration. Aerodynamic body styling parts, BRABUS sports suspension and BRABUS Monoblock 16/17 inch alloy wheels add to the sporty appeal.

The near-series smart BRABUS ebike study, a further world premiere, can reach a speed of up to 45 km/h, thus offering a further enjoyable way of getting around the city and countryside. This sporty two-wheeler has the features typical of BRABUS - more style, more power and more exclusiveness.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

Posted in 2012, brabus, concept, drive, ebike, ed, electric, facelift, for-us, fortwo, geneva motor show, smart | Leave a comment

Local zero-emission driving pleasure for everyone: The new generation smart fortwo electric drive

By Adji

The third generation smart fortwo electric drive offers zero local-emission motoring with even more fun behind the wheel. Following the huge success of the second generation, electric mobility will soon be accessible to anyone interested. In the development of the new generation smart benefited from extensive experience and customer feedback gathered worldwide over the past few years. Driven by a battery supplied by the Daimler subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive for the first time the 55 kW electric motor passes the 120 km/h mark. From 0 to 100 km/h in less than 13 seconds - even driving on urban motorways is fun. The 17.6 kWh battery enables the lively city car to travel more than 140 kilometres in city traffic without producing any local emissions. A new sales model makes the introduction to electric mobility particularly attractive for customers: the sale&care model offers customers an opportunity to buy the vehicle at an attractive price and to lease the battery for a monthly fee. Before the official start of sales those interested can already reserve a vehicle via smart.com in some countries.

For the further development of the smart fortwo electric drive the company was able to integrate extensive experience and customer feedback from various electric mobility projects. Ever since 1998 the smart has been revolutionising urban mobility like no vehicle before it. Compact, agile, environmentally friendly and stylish – it has evolved from a practical small car to a lifestyle product and has long become a familiar sight on the roads of cities around the world.

With the start of the first electrically driven test fleet in 2007 in London smart also took on a pioneering role in the area of electric mobility when 100 smart fortwo electric drives took to the roads of the British capital – with great success. Today the vehicle is a trendsetter and a synonym for forward-looking battery-electric-driven urban mobility of the future.

One of the largest electric fleets worldwide

With the introduction of the second generation in 2009 the smart fortwo electric drive was ready to take to the roads. The electrically driven avant-gardiste from Stuttgart was introduced in 18 markets. The objective of the second generation was to gather as much experience as possible about how customers use and charge electric vehicles. The huge demand exceeded all expectations. Instead of the planned 1000 vehicles more than 2000 smart fortwo electric drives were produced in Hambach. This means that smart has one of the largest fleets of electrically driven vehicles on the roads worldwide and a trove of customer experience and wishes that have been input in the third generation smart fortwo electric drive.

A higher top speed and better acceleration at speeds above 60 km/h were right at the top of the customers' list of priorities. However, contrary to prevailing opinion the range wasn't the crucial point from the perspective of the test customers. The vast majority of users confirmed the results of surveys which say that people drive approximately 30 to 40 kilometres per day on average in urban areas and they expressed great satisfaction with the range of their smart.

Even better in the third generation

From June the further developed smart fortwo electric drive will start winning wide-ranging buyers in more than 30 markets for its innovative and forward-looking drive concept.

The third generation smart fortwo electric drive is equipped with a 55 kW magneto-electric motor - the first product from the EM-motive joint venture founded together with Bosch - which ensures that it is as agile and lively as ever. With torque of 130 Newton metres it accelerates powerfully and immediately from 0 to 60 km/h in 5 seconds and thanks to better acceleration in the higher speed range it can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 13 seconds as it has much more tractive power than its predecessor. This makes for speedy driving and overtaking. The battery-electric two-seater smart fortwo now also has a higher top speed of more than 120 km/h, putting it on a par with the combustion-engined smart.

A battery supplied by the Daimler subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive is fitted in the new smart fortwo electric drive for the first time. With capacity of 17.6 kWh the lithium-ion battery from the joint venture with Evonik Industries provides for more than 140 kilometres of pollutant-free driving fun. In addition to the higher battery capacity clear improvements have been made to the efficiency of the drive system, resulting in a greater range. When completely empty it takes a maximum of eight hours to fully charge the battery at a household socket or charging station on the electricity systems of most countries i.e. overnight.

Quick charging in just one hour

For the greater freedom of quick charging it is possible to optionally equip the vehicle with a quick-charging function. The 22 kW on-board charger enables a completely empty battery to be fully charged in less than an hour. A power cable is needed for this which is used to connect the vehicle to a public quick-charging station or a wallbox at home or work.

smart will offer this in future in cooperation with SPX, one of the world's leading suppliers of technology solutions in the fields of energy and automotive as a global installation and service partner, and with KEBA, a specialist for innovative E-charging infrastructure and wallboxes. If a customer decides to install a wallbox at home or work the smart Sales department will contact SPX. SPX will examine the local conditions, make an offer, and after discussing the cost estimate, arrange for installation of the wallbox from KEBA. The wallbox is standardised and can of course also be used to charge of vehicles from other manufacturers, for example if there is a mixed fleet.

A comparison of the two smart fortwo electric drive generations

Attractive introduction to electric mobility

The smart fortwo electric drive makes the introduction to electric mobility very attractive with a new marketing concept. With the sale&care model customers can buy, lease or finance the vehicle at an attractive price and lease the battery for less than €60 per month plus VAT. This means that the monthly costs for electric driving are no higher than those for a comparable vehicle with diesel drive. The rental costs include regular maintenance and annual servicing of the battery and, if necessary, quick battery replacement. smart also has a solution for all those who want to buy the entire vehicle.

The price for the vehicle with the sale&care model is considerably less than €16,000 + VAT. In view of the low operating costs electric driving therefore represents a very attractive form of individual mobility. National promotion programmes in many countries and mobility benefits such as the use of special lanes or exemption from city congestion charges are further advantages of electric driving. With the attractive sale&care package and the significant technological progress for the third generation smart fortwo electric drive smart offers its customers affordable driving fun for daily use based on the environmentally friendly drive.

Anyone interested can now register on www.smart.comwith no obligation and will receive all the latest news on the new electric smart. Customers in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK who would like to be among the first owners of the new third generation smart fortwo electric drive can already reserve a vehicle in advance online. The reservation programme will start successively in further markets.

Fill up on renewable energies

Electric vehicles cut down greenhouse gases on a sustained basis, especially when they are powered by renewably generated electricity. This is why the company is supplying as much additional energy generated by wind power to the German power network as is needed to run all third generation electric smarts sold in Germany – thus supporting the ambitious climate targets of the EU. Within the framework of this initiative Daimler is deliberately not taking up support measures from the Renewable Energy Act.

A fresh green and even more colours

With a larger radiator grille featuring the electric drive logo, stylish LED daytime driving lights below the headlamps, wider door sills and several modifications to the rear the new model is much more dynamic than its predecessor.
The new E-smart comes in all smart colours and colour combinations that are also available for the diesel and petrol models. The new colour fresh green is a particularly visible manifestation of electric driving fun. In addition to crystal white bodypanels the electric drive design package comprises white alloy rims, a green tridion cell, green mirror caps and numerous green accents in the interior, which form an attractive contrast to the black seats.

Perfectly equipped

As to be expected the new smart fortwo electric drive features extensive equipment. A highlight is the fully automatic air conditioning with pollen filter and pre-air conditioning. As with the second generation, when it is connected to the power network the vehicle can be pre-cooled or pre-heated as required for a programmed departure time. A new feature is the possibility to start the pre-air conditioning via the internet or a smartphone at any time. The standard equipment furthermore includes electric windows, leather steering wheel, leather gear knob, the entry line radio, power steering, 9-spoke alloy wheels and a luggage compartment cover. As with the predecessor model, in addition to the standard solid roof a glass roof and a cabrio version are available. The trip computer – also a standard feature in the electric smart – shows journey information including the remaining range. And like the predecessor model the two round instruments show the charge status of the battery and the energy used and recuperated. In addition, the smart fortwo electric drive can be equipped with a navigation system and a 3-spoke leather steering wheel.

Clever app for infotainment with smartphones

smart is the first car brand to develop its own drive app for the iPhone®. Together with the smart kit and cradle for the iPhone®the popular phone becomes a multimedia trip computer that is optimised for the smart fortwo in terms of function and design. The smart drive app for the iPhone®has all the important features needed whilst driving: phone calls via hands-free system, your own extensive music collection, internet radio and a clever navigation system with a special smart touch. There are also smart extras – for example the Car Finder that will guide you back to wherever you parked your car.

The new smart drive app for the iPhone®is simple to operate, for example thanks to extra-large buttons. The new app makes urban mobility even easier and more fun - the declared objective of the smart philosophy.

Two new elements developed by smart make the two-seater car and the iPhone®a perfect team:

- The smart cradle for the iPhone ® with control unit and microphone serves as a stylish and functional holder. It charges the iPhone ® and also functions as a hands-free system using the loudspeakers of the smart radio for sound output and automatically muting it when phone calls are made.

- The smart drive app for the iPhone ® is the world's first drive app on the market to be developed by a car brand. It combines all the features needed on the road in a single app. All the functions are extremely easy to use thanks to extra-large buttons and extra-large letters.

Always know how far you can go: connected services

The smart drive app for the iPhone®can be tuned with further functions tailored to the smart fortwo electric drive. However, the current charge status or the SmartCharging charge configuration can also be conveniently controlled and managed via a web portal from a home computer or with any modern smartphone.

The Vehicle Homepage offers every third generation smart fortwo electric drive customer a chance to visualise the range on an interactive map with 3D views. All the destinations that can be reached with the current battery charge are displayed. The public charging stations within reach can also be seen at a glance. If a desired destination is further away than the available range the Vehicle Homepage can be used to quickly check the additional battery charge needed. Among other things the depiction of the range considers the topography and the route profile. The intuitive graphic depiction that can be combined with 3D views and satellite images is an attractive feature. Furthermore, the vehicle itself can also become active. Information on the charge status and range can be sent by email or Twitter messages for example. The driver is notified as soon as the desired range can be reached with the current charge.

Intelligent charging

The smart fortwo electric drive can be connected to the internet at home via a standard powerline adapter (Homeplug AV) for SmartCharging. After entering the planned departure time in the vehicle or the web portal the vehicle will be fully charged in a battery-saving and economical way, and pre-air conditioned if required so that it is ready to start. The pre-air conditioning can also be conveniently activated online shortly before setting off. The third generation smart fortwo electric drive also makes charging at public stations easy. With Plug&Charge the vehicle identifies itself as soon as it is plugged into a compatible charging point and the charging process is settled automatically.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

Posted in 2012, drive, ed, electric, fortwo, generation, geneva motor show, new, smart, the | Leave a comment

World premiere in Geneva: smart BRABUS electric drive and smart BRABUS ebike - Electric upgrade

By Adji | Published Thursday, 1 March 2012

For 10 years already smart BRABUS has stood for dynamism and sportiness. Since 2002 the company founded by smart and the tuning specialist BRABUS from Bottrop have brought top versions of the popular car brand to the market. At the Geneva Motor Show the BRABUS versions of the smart fortwo electric drive and the smart ebike will show what these look like in the era of electric mobility. The dynamic character of both models is not only expressed in their appearance, but also in enhanced performance.

"The smart BRABUS electric drive is our sports car with a green heart", says smart boss Dr. Annette Winkler. "Electric driving in the city is more fun than ever with this 2.69 metre short bundle of power.

"The smart BRABUS electric drive will be available from smart centers in 12 countries from the end of this year. In addition to modifications to the exterior and interior styling, its drive has been designed for particularly dynamic and powerful acceleration. Aerodynamic body styling parts, BRABUS sports suspension and BRABUS Monoblock 16/17 inch alloy wheels add to the sporty appeal.

At the same time the near-series study of the smart BRABUS ebike is celebrating its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show. The two-wheeler can reach a speed of up to 45 km/h and offers a further enjoyable way of getting around the city and countryside. The production version of the smart BRABUS ebike is expected to be available from dealers from the end of 2012.

"Like all smart BRABUS vehicles these two new models follow our philosophy of more style, more power and more exclusiveness", says Bodo Buschmann, CEO of the Bottrop customiser BRABUS. "In addition to classic BRABUS customers they also appeal to smart electric drive customers who attach importance to environmental friendliness and also want even more sportiness and exclusiveness. Or to put it another way: we give the sporty soul a green heart."

Dynamic and powerful acceleration: the smart BRABUS electric drive

Zero local emissions but maximum driving fun: the smart BRABUS electric drive proves that cutting-edge urban mobility can be combined with lively agility and a sporty look. The electric motor is based on the state-of-the-art drive technology of the new smart fortwo electric drive and has an output of 60 kW. The smart BRABUS electric drive delivers maximum torque of 135 Nm, which means that it almost always wins when pulling away at the traffic lights. The new BRABUS sports suspension makes a decisive contribution to driving fun by bringing the vehicle approximately ten millimetres closer to the asphalt. The sporty character is accompanied by a special BRABUS sound to match, generated by a sound module. The smart BRABUS electric drive comes with a BRABUS sports steering wheel with steering wheel gearshift as a standard feature. Recuperation can be regulated with the help of the shift paddles.

The smart BRABUS electric drive has a dynamic look that also signals environmental friendliness: the tridion safety cell and door mirror caps are painted in electric green whilst black dominates on all other body parts – even the front grille. Dark BRABUS headlamps, BRABUS "Monoblock VII" alloy wheels measuring 16" at the front and 17" at the rear, and BRABUS Xclusive aerodynamic body styling parts (a front spoiler and a special rear apron insert with double reflectors) round off the sporty look.

In the interior accent trim parts and contrast components also come in electric green. Numerous BRABUS Xclusive components, including the instrument panel and interior door trim in leather look, leather seats, stainless steel sports pedals with rubber nubs, BRABUS hand-brake handle and BRABUS dashboard instruments (cockpit clock and rev counter) lend the interior a dynamic and exclusive look.

Max. speed up to 45 km/h: the smart BRABUS ebike

The smart BRABUS ebike has the features typical of BRABUS - more style, more power and more exclusiveness. It has a dynamic look with the frame and fork in matt black and components such as quick release skewers, pedals and brake callipers in anodised green providing a striking contrast. The saddle and grips come in green leather. A four-piston brake system is fitted on the front wheel. The matt black four-spoke wheels are made of carbon. Further components that distinguish the smart BRABUS ebike from the smart ebike are Sport Contact tyres, weight-optimised cranks and pedals and the carbon seatpost.

With 500 watts the electric motor is twice as powerful as that on the smart ebike. At the same time it was possible to reduce the weight of the ebike by more than ten percent. This makes for agile performance: the two-wheeler that is liable to registration has a top speed of 45 km/h. The rider decides how much assistance to his muscle power he would like from the electric motor with the throttle grip. There is a choice of four power levels with the fourth and highest level providing maximum pushing power.

Successful joint venture: smart BRABUS GmbH

Sporty smarts are called BRABUS – and have been for ten years already. In 2002 smart and the tuning specialist BRABUS from Bottrop founded a joint company. As early as 2003 the first premium models developed by the joint venture smart BRABUS GmbH - the smart fortwo BRABUS coupé and cabrio - were introduced on the market.
The smart BRABUS tailor made individualisation programme has also been received very well by smart fans. With paint finishes in thousands of different colours, leather in 30 basic colours and exclusive design variants, six cabrio soft top colours and the extensive smart BRABUS accessories portfolio it enables creative customers to configure a smart in line with their own personal ideas.