Smart Cars Going 100% Electric In USA!

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Daimler’s popular Smart brand will be moving away from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the US and Canada in the coming years — completely — and fully embracing all-electric vehicles instead.

To be more specific, the company is now planning to cease the sale of Smart-branded cars with gasoline engines in the US and Canada by the time that the 2017 model reaches the end of its sales life (this autumn). All sales in those two countries thereafter will all-electric Smart cars only.

As we reported in an exclusive analysis recently, Smart was actually the #1 brand in the US for percentage of its car sales being electric cars — 8.4%. That was compared to an electric car (including plug-in hybrid) share of 6.4% at BMW Cars, 5.9% at Ford Cars, 5.5% at BMW Brand (which includes larger vehicles like SUVs), Porsche at 4.8%, Audi Cars at 4.7%, and Chevrolet Cars at 4.6%.

The all-electric news originates with comments made by the head of Mercedes-Benz USA, Dietmar Exler, in a letter sent to dealerships in the two countries, which Reuters got a hold of. That news organization claims that the news is just the latest sign of “struggles for small cars in the United States.”

Exler’s comments read: “Developments within the micro-car segment present some challenges for the current smart product portfolio. A dedicated focus on the electric drive in the US and Canada provides a logical step to support a sustainable, zero emissions future.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung first covered the news, and it was that article first sent our way by a reader. A Google translation from there portrays one Exler comment as, “The electric drive is of central importance for our long-term drive strategy in North America, and the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive will play an important role.”

The news shouldn’t be too surprising for those reading this, as the Smart brand (and super compacts in general) have always faced an uphill battle in the US, and the all-electric version better fulfills the market that is there (urban people wanting to limit their greenhouse gas emissions and/or fuel costs).

The Smart Fortwo Electric Drive is one of the electric models that still has a relatively small driving range — 68 miles (109 kilometers). Presumably, a coming version will have much more range, as will an electric Smart Forfour — which may or may not be coming to the US, a matter we haven’t seen confirmation of yet.

Related Stories:

Why I Sold My Camaro, & Bought An Electric Car

Review: smart electric drive

BMW & Ford Electric Car Sales = 6% Of BMW & Ford US Car Sales In November

Entire Smart Car Lineup Getting 4th-Gen Electric Drive Tech (Including Smart ForFour)

US Electric Car Sales Up 59% In January 2017

The 20 Electric Cars For Sale In The USA, Canada, &/Or Europe


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre