by "Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
Published 09/14/2017 at 10:07
by "Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
Published 09/14/2017 at 10:07
Tags: smart
STARS: 2
I guess smart wanted to give up on the USA/Canada early because of our hilariously low sales. Regardless, it looks like Mercedes-Benz is finally following Nicolas Hayek’s dream of having an EV manufacturer (though is ignoring his other proposition of a hybrid smart). By my estimations then, the current 453 generation will likely only be five years, with whatever they’re cooking right now hitting the stage in 2020.
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Oh, and they plan to dump all of MB’s autonomous driving tech into it, there’s that too...
"bhtooefr" (bhtooefr)
09/14/2017 at 10:12, STARS: 0
Wait a sec...
Do they mean all electric, or all electrified? They use both, but they mean different things.
"Wacko" (wacko--)
09/14/2017 at 11:12, STARS: 0
for the smart i’m guessing all electric, since i doubt they have enough space in a smart to be hybrids
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
09/14/2017 at 11:21, STARS: 2
An all-electric Smart forFour with a range of lets say...200-250 miles...nice interior (and I mean nice , not funky, funky could be polarizing) and trendy tech priced at around $25,000 would be a really compelling option for a lot of people in urban/suburban areas. I think if they did that it could sell really well.
"bhtooefr" (bhtooefr)
09/14/2017 at 11:58, STARS: 0
Depends on how much fuel tank you want - you could put a small battery in in front of the fuel tank if you made it smaller, and that’s the compromise Toyota goes for lately.
Or, for that matter, depends on how much battery you want - you could get a 250 Wh pack pretty much anywhere, if you’re running really low assist power.
"Arrivederci" (arrividerci)
09/14/2017 at 12:02, STARS: 0
Agreed - if they also ditched the overly-cutesy styling.
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
09/14/2017 at 12:06, STARS: 1
The cutesy-ness is what drives people away. If they’re gonna make an all electric car and expect to make money they need to give it more edge.
"DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time" (dc3ls-)
09/14/2017 at 12:18, STARS: 0
Take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I think they should focus on charge times rather than range.
The people who stand to benefit the most from EVs are people who live in cities, because short stop in go traffic etc. The problem is most of these people live in apartments and can’t charge at home, keeping them from adopting EVs.
If it only had a range of say 75-100 miles. But could charge in 45 minutes to an hour, I think that would be more appealing than a 200 mile range that takes 2 or 3 hours to charge.
Since people would have to charge somewhere other than their home, I don’t think they’d want to have to wait a long time for the car to charge.
But then again no trusts me to develop anything so ¯\_()_/¯
"CRider" (crider)
09/15/2017 at 01:32, STARS: 1
The problem with that is that batteries can’t charge very quickly once they are almost full. The safest way to quickly add 100 miles of range is if you have 150 miles of capacity to go, ergo the best way to improve useful charge times (e.g. charge from 20% to 80%) is through a larger capacity battery. Or you could do what Telsla did with the 60kwh-that’s-realy-75kwh battery and really hold back the usable capacity of your batteries, but then people would complain and you’d have an expensive, heavy car with limited range and power.
"CRider" (crider)
09/15/2017 at 01:35, STARS: 0
Nah, they’ll just have a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine next to a tiny electric motor and a handful of lithium ion cells.
"SpeedSix" (speedsix)
09/15/2017 at 03:48, STARS: 0
They should also come standard with ultra-long charging cables with an inertia reel, since you can’t always have a nearby outlet or charger.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
09/15/2017 at 10:10, STARS: 1
Gotta wholly disagree there. The original concept of smart called for a design exactly like that. In fact, many smart owners bought their cars especially for the quirky design. It’s a design that still has other automakers trying to copy.
To effectively turn the design into an also-ran of every other city car may help smart in sales, but is otherwise a spit to the face of the car’s original creator. It would be like if Porsche decided to make a 911 that looks like a Camaro.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
09/15/2017 at 10:11, STARS: 0
See my response to DrivesaWRX :P
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
09/15/2017 at 10:35, STARS: 1
I agree with your take. Its love it or hate it, which creates either enthusiasts or haters.
Sorry for the confusion, I was really speaking in terms of breaking into the mainstream market to capture a large percentage of total EV sales. But, I’m not a market analyst, nor do I have a crystal ball. So, perhaps they don’t need to redesign to capture the attention of the average consumer.
And to be honest the current forFour isn’t even THAT polarizing of a car.
I like it’s looks, I definitely wouldn’t mind driving one if it met the criteria I stated earlier.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
09/15/2017 at 11:12, STARS: 1
Despite being a smart purist, I actually like the looks of the Twingo (the forfour is based on the Twingo) more! For whatever reason, smart gave both the fortwo and the forfour a really flat nose, which in the flesh looks a little weird compared to the nice slant the Twingo has.
IIRC, they did that to improve crashworthiness with pedestrians and to effectively fool Americans into thinking it’s a bigger car...It didn’t work...then again, they can’t expect much American sales if they never market or advertise the cars.
As you can probably tell, I really really really dislike the American branch of smart. They *may* have had a chance if they brought over the forfour and actually advertised, but nope!
"Arrivederci" (arrividerci)
09/15/2017 at 11:17, STARS: 0
I think it looks like a clown that got whacked in the face with a shovel.
"Arrivederci" (arrividerci)
09/15/2017 at 11:20, STARS: 1
Fair enough - but if they want to broaden sales, they need to attract individuals who wouldn’t otherwise buy one. If they’re happy where they are, by all means keep building the cutesy vehicles.
To your Porsche example, Porsche clearly wasn’t - so they started building the Cayenne. The result was that they grew their marketshare a hundredfold.
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
09/15/2017 at 11:28, STARS: 0
...Well now I can’t unsee that...
"Arrivederci" (arrividerci)
09/15/2017 at 13:59, STARS: 0
Haha - sorry.