some itibiti smart car history my attempt at assembling a smart car timeline. it is by no means definitive.
itibiti bling	itibiti pictures	itibiti home	itibiti videos	vanity plates
custom led's	misc pix	what's new?	karen & billo	the wienermobile
smart, a subsid1ary of daimler-benz, was founded in 1994, in böblingen, germany. the idea was to create an easily parked car, short enough for "nose-in" parking. its 250 centimeter length was the width of a regular parking space, allowing two or three smarts to park in the same space. the project, started by swiss watch manufacturer swatch, was nicknamed the "swatch-mobile". the name "smart", an acronym for swatch/mercedes/art, was intended to incorporate innovative features, such as a hybrid engine, and be affordable for young people. its design objectives were similar to the citroën 2cv, which began manufacturing in the late 40's. swatch ceo, nicolas hayek, sought an established car manufacturer to produce his bold, innovative car. after general motors rejected the project, hayek partner with volkswagen, but due to vw's own financial weakness at the time, plans were never finalized. swatch finally teamed with daimler-benz and the factory known as smartville, in hambach, france, was established in 1994. smartville was built to support the environmentally responsible nature of all smart products through economical and environmentally friendly painting processes, an aggressive energy management concept and the environmentally compatible design of the vehicles themselves. in 2007, daimler-chrysler joined forces with roger penske to bring the smart fortwo to the usa, becoming the 37th country to sell the smart car. in april, 2008, smart sold its 100,000th smart fortwo worldwide. also in 2008, smart sold its 1,000,000th vehicle on the 10th anniversary of its 1998 product launch.
"smart story: history of the smart brand"  on display at the mercedes-benz museum in stuttgart
smart 451 body panels
		click pix to view		bottom of page
	smartville, france	all smart car models	100,000th smart fortwo
citroën 2cv dolly	citroën 2cv az-luxe	pre-war citroën 2cv	citroën 2cv	citroën 2cv sahara
the citroën 2cv was the inspiration for the smart car concept. read more about it here

	1998 - 2003 smart city coupé, city cabriolet, pulse & passion
city coupé	city cabriolet	pusle cabriolet	city passion cab	city coupé
	2002 smart crossblade			top of page
2003 - 2007 smart fortwo city coupé & fortwo city cabriolet
2002 city coupé	2005 city coupé	2006 city coupé	2004 city cabriolet	2003 city cabriolet
	2003 - 2005 smart roadster
	2004 - 2006 smart forfour
	2007 - present 2nd generation smart fortwo			top of page
	2009 - present smart barabus
	smart prototypes
smart fortwo ev (electric vehicle) / ed (electric drive)
		smart crosstown
	smart k only sold in japan			top of page
this is NOT a smart fortwo! the chinese are the best, or worst, reverse engineers in the world. in 2007, shandong huoyun developed a nearly indistinguishable knockoff of the smart fortwo. under the skin, however, it's an entirely different story. as its name suggests, the huoyun electromobile is an electric vehicle with a range of 75 miles, and a top speed of 31mph. considering it's also lacking the smart tridion safety cell, in my opinion 31 mph is more than enough. i hear enterprising new yorkers have already started selling these cars from a blanket laid out on fifth avenue.
		huoyun electromobile built by shandong huoyun

itibiti home

itibitismart® is not affiliated with smart USA or any authorized smart USA dealership

need itibiti information? or shout out to billo follow me on twitter!