Daimler ramping up Smart Fortwo Electric Drive prodution to meet "high" demand

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Manufacturing/Plants, SEAT, Daimler

Like Ford in the US, Daimler makes vehicles with different kinds of powertrains in one plant. Over in Hambach, France, around 750 Daimler elves workers put out all the Smart Fortwos in the world, over 1.4 million and counting. Daimler now also makes the Fortwo Electric Drive there, the first series production EV made in Europe. Daimler invested over 200 million euros to expand the plant for the EV model and future products. So far, over 1,000 electric Smarts have been built and Smart head Annette Winkler said that "production is now being continuously ramped up to meet the high customer demand worldwide."

It's not that surprising that people want this EV, since Daimler is making sure the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive will be crazy affordable (for an electric vehicle) when it goes on sale. The car will start at just $25,000 before any federal tax credits when it comes to the US in the spring, and it is available at a low cost with a battery lease in Europe (details below). We like this tiny EV - as you can read here, it's a big improvement over the previous generation - and if you can live with the size limitations, it's a good way to get your EV toes wet.

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Daimler ramping up Smart Fortwo Electric Drive prodution to meet "high" demand originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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