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Germany · est. 1994 · The city car, rethought.
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Overview
Smart set out to rethink the city car from first principles: two seats, under three metres long, and short enough to park nose-in to a kerb. The Fortwo remains one of the few genuinely radical packaging exercises to reach volume production.
History
The idea came from Nicolas Hayek, the man behind Swatch, in the early 1980s — a small, stylish car sold the way watches are. An initial agreement with Volkswagen was terminated, and the venture was formed with Daimler-Benz in 1994. The name is an acronym of Swatch, Mercedes and art.
The Hambach plant in France opened in 1997 and the City-Coupé launched across nine European markets in 1998. Its Tridion safety cell — a visibly contrasting rigid steel frame — was both the engineering answer to crash safety in a tiny car and the styling signature. Daimler absorbed the loss-making business in 2006, and in 2019 formed a joint venture with Geely that moved the brand to all-electric vehicles built in China.