Daimler and Geely to develop Smart’s electric cars

Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, has partnered with Chinese automotive group Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to develop Smart’s electric cars. Smart makes small vehicles designed for urban driving and the new joint venture will assemble the next generation of Smart products at a factory in China. International sales are due to begin in 2022. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Daimler board, says: “Separately, Mercedes-Benz will produce a compact electric vehicle [EV] at the Hambach plant, sustaining employ
April 9, 2019 Read time: 1 min

2069 Daimler, owner of 1685 Mercedes-Benz, has partnered with Chinese automotive group Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to develop Smart’s electric cars.

Smart makes small vehicles designed for urban driving and the new joint venture will assemble the next generation of Smart products at a factory in China. International sales are due to begin in 2022.  

Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Daimler board, says: “Separately, Mercedes-Benz will produce a compact electric vehicle [EV] at the Hambach plant, sustaining employment with further investment in the facility.”

Mercedes is investing €500 million at the French location, where the compact EV will be produced under the EQ brand.

In the run-up to 2022, Daimler will continue producing vehicles such as the Smart EQ Fortwo at the Hambach plant, as well as using its Novo Metso facility in Slovenia to produce the smart EQ Forfour.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Emissions reductions targets to have major impact on transport
    October 28, 2015
    As bold moves aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions have been introduced in California, David Crawford looks at the ramifications for transportation. California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent dramatic raising of the bar on emissions reduction policy for the state has won him praise from Japan, Australia, Europe and the secretariat of the critical UN conference on climate change being held in Paris in November/December 2015. His April 2015 executive order aimed at bringing emissions to 40% below 1990 lev
    Read More
  • Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe and ViaVan launch on-demand ridesharing service
    January 3, 2018
    Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and ViaVan, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Vans and Via have launched a two-year project to create an on-demand ridesharing service in Berlin with routes that can be adapted by its passengers, in Spring 2018. The pilot aims to reduce congestion through deploying 50 Mercedes-Benz vehicles with plans to expand the fleet to 300. Public acceptance of the scheme will also be assessed. Each journey starts and ends at a virtual stop which is shared with other passengers.
    Read More
  • Ficosa shows off new e-mobility development centre
    October 11, 2018
    Spanish firm Ficosa has pulled back the curtain on its new centre for developing electromobility solutions. The €10 million, 1,200-m2 ‘e-mobility hub’ near Barcelona in Spain, currently contains four new labs and will be the location for developing and manufacturing software and hardware solutions for hybrid and electric vehicles, specifically battery-management systems and on-board chargers. It is home to 120 engineers, and the company says it will take on 100 more in 2019, as well as adding a new
    Read More
  • RAC Foundation: National charge point network needed for electric vehicles
    October 4, 2017
    Potential purchases of electric vehicles with have limited widespread impact without a national charge point network, particularly on motorways and major A-Roads, according to a report by the RAC Foundation. Report author Harold Dermot outlines several challenges that need addressing.Currently, 80% of EV owners have access to home charging, but 93% use the public charging network.
    Read More

Highlighted Content