Wondering if the Smart car ever really caught on? Well you can put the question to rest as Daimler’s city car brand has just reached the landmark of 2,000,000 vehicles sold.
The brand first launched in 1998 as a collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and Swiss watchmaker Swatch, but has long since been subsumed by the former. By now, Smart competes in 46 markets around the world, including Germany (its home market), Italy (where buyers can even purchase their cars online), and China, where sales have tripled last month compared to the August of last year. Last month alone, customers took delivery of 7,631 vehicles.
“The fact that worldwide smart sales have passed the two million mark shows the extent to which delighted customers around the world prefer our uniquely compact and unbelievably agile cars to any other car for city driving,” said Smart chief Dr. Annette Winkler. “Whether it’s fitted with a combustion engine or an electric motor, whether it’s a two-seater, a four-seater or a stunning cabrio – smart brings drivers plenty of joy and saves them time. For our customers smart is much more than ‘just’ a car.”
To put the Smart milestone into perspective, consider that BMW has sold over three million Minis since relaunching the brand in 2001, and Fiat has sold over 1.5 million 500s since its launch in 2007. The milestone also comes in stark contrast to the Toyota iQ, whose sales have been much slower, prompting both Scion and Aston Martin to cease offering their versions of the Japanese city car.
Currently Smart sells three bodystyles – Fortwo, Fortwo Cabrio, and Forfour – with three internal-combustion engine specs and two transmissions. It’s also introducing the new Electric Drive range in Paris this week.
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