Category: Smart

Daimler has announced it will start selling the ForTwo in China  from next year.

Daimler CEO, Dieter Zietsche has announced that the Smart brand will start exporting the small car to China from mid 2009 in an attempt to boost its global sales and turn its business into a profitable one. China will become the second large market outside Europe to get the ForTwo city car after the US where the car has been on sale since the beginning of the year.

The success met on the American market likely convinced the company’s executives to take the opportunity to launch the city car on the fast growing Chinese market where famous traffic jams and high pollution levels are favourable to smaller cars.

However, the path is far from being easy as Smart will meet a strong competition from local players such as Shuanghuan which sells a ForTwo’s carbon copy called Bubble.

The Smart ForTwo is meeting a strong demand on the American Market since its launch, but

The demand for the Smart ForTwo is so strong that its American importer, Roger Penske says that he can sell 40,000 vehicles this year although Smart only planned to deliver 25,000 of them to the US. Some customers are expected to wait for the next year batch to be delivered.

The SMart ForTwo is currently being sold through a network of 67 dealers, mainly Mercedes-Benz showrooms. That number will be increased to 74 showrooms by 2009. In the meantime, it is reported that dealers a recording a strong 25% cancellation rate. David Schembri, president of Smart USA, declined to confirm the report.

Source: Autoweek

Penske Auto Group, distributor of the Smart ForTwo in the US, has announced it had delivered 1,400 cars in January of this year.

This is good news for the carmaker as the ForTwo was launched last month. The distributor plans to sell 1,500 more vehicles this month and another 2,000 in March. It expects to sell between 20,000 and 25,000 this year. Roger Penske said. “We think it’s the right car at the right time ” and “we’re really excited about the smart business.”

He also said he was pushing Daimler Benz to send more vehicles in order to satisfy a growing demand. He shouldn’t have any problems to be heard in Stuttgart as Daimler CEO Dieter Zietsche hopes the American market will save the Smart brand. Indeed, the company hasn’t made a profit yet despite a launch which occurred almost ten years ago.

Due to poor sales, Mercedes ceased the production of the ForFour in the middle of 2006 and ruled out a possible come back at that time. The company changed its mind and is serious considering bringing back the four door Smart model.

This news doesn’t totally come as a surprise. Indeed, other car makers have announced that they would build small cars in order to comply with stricter emission regulation. Among them, Volkswagen revealed the four door Up! concept car at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.

This time, Daimler would go on its own to develop the future ForFour which would share its inner structure with the current ForTwo model. Daimler executives think the car suffered from a design that had no links with the two door model. The former ForFour shared its underpinnings with the Mitsubishi Colt.

Daimler must be in a mad rage as Martin Motors unveiled the Bubble model on a car park at the Bologna Motor Show. Indeed, the Italian importer of the Shuanghuan cars had been forbidden by an Italian court to show the Smart ForTwo’s carbon copy at the Italian motorshow. But its CEO, stubborn, got round the court order in a clever and funny way.

Daimler had already threatened China Automobile Deutschland of a legal action if the importer displayed the Shuanghuan Noble at the Frankfurt Motor Show in last September. In Italy, Daimler went to court to forbid the sales of the Noble/Bubble in Italy. If Daimler wins the case, the front-wheel drive city car will go back to China.

In July I reported that the Smart ForTwo had generated 20,000 pre-orders. That was more than just good news. Actually, it was a big surprise. Due to go on sale on the American market next January, United Auto Group has already recorded 30,000 pre-orders according to Daimler CEO Dieter Zietsche in a interview with Automotive News. All customers made a deposit of $99 to ensure that they will be the first to be served when the city car hits the showroom. Moreover, 50,000 people visited the showrooms in order to try the ForTwo model.

Zietsche also said that Smart will not be able to meet the demand as US sales combined with European sales will exceed the production capacity. This statement should be taken with a pinch of salt as Daimler CEO likely wants to generate a sales effect. Indeed, the pre-orders are not definitive sales and a lot of potential customers will change their mind, especially with a deposit of $99. The first customers will get their Smart delivered at the end of next year or the beginning of 2009.

The Smart ForTwo generated a lot of interest in large American cities in California, but also on the East Coast in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston. Surprisingly, the Smart also attracted buyers in Nebraska, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Whether the US might be a sales success or not will likely seal the fate of Smart which hasn’t made a profit yet despite a launch which occurred almost ten years ago.

The German group Mercedes-Benz has recorded a 11.8% sales increase over the same period last year with 114,600 vehicles delivered. On the year-to-date sales, Mercedes-Benz Cars has delivered 1,056,900 vehicles which is a 1.9% increase compared to 2006.

Smart division recorded the strongest growth with an impressive 28.7% increase. While Smart sold three models last year, only the ForTwo model is available nowadays. Sales of the ForTwo have increased by 92% to 10,700 units.

Mercedes-Benz sales jumped by 10.3% in October thanks to a successful C-Class. More than 130,000 new C-Class have been delivered in the world since its launch in March. Surprisingly, the S-Class is also a hit. The German flagship, with an entry price at £54,117, recorded a strong month. In the year-to-date, Mercedes-Benz delivered 91,300 S-Class. This is higher than the combined sales of all models of directly competing German carmakers.

Germany remains the biggest market with 31,400 delivered vehicles despite a slight increase of 1.9%. The growth comes from the Asia-Pacific region with a 27% increase. There the German carmaker delivered a total of 11,400 vehicles. Western Europe comes second with a 14% increase to 37,800 vehicles. Mercedes-Benz delivered 22,800 vehicles on the US market which is a 11% increase over the same period last year.

    Could the U.S. market save Smart? According to Detroit News, the answer to this question could be a yes. Despite a price of around £5,900/€8,700/$12,000 for the entry model, more than 20,000 reservations have been made in total across the U.S. for the upcoming city car.

The future buyers have each put down a deposit of $99 on the car, which is set to create the city car segment in the U.S. If it proves to be successful, the Smart will have revolutionised the American market. It could potentially open up the market for Japanese car makers to start shipping over their K-cars. Imagine a Los Angeles filled with hundreds of thousands of Suzuki Wagon R!

To avoid any embarrassment for Smart’s parent company Mercedes, the compact cars will not be sold through traditional Mercedes car dealers. Instead, the Smart ForTwo will be sold mainly through a network of dealers under Roger Penske’s United Auto Group.