The Smart car began as a Swatch boss's dream of a watch on wheels
In 1982 Nicolas Hayek, head of the company behind Swatch, imagined a tiny, stylish two-seater that buyers could personalise like his watches. Volkswagen signed up and then backed out. Mercedes-Benz took the idea on, and the name Smart stands for Swatch Mercedes Art, though Hayek never got the hybrid engine he wanted.
Hayek believed carmakers were ignoring city drivers who wanted something small and fashionable, and his engineering firm started work on what was nicknamed the Swatchmobile, with two seats and a hybrid drivetrain. He agreed to develop it with Volkswagen in July 1991, but when Ferdinand Piech became VW's chief in 1993 he moved to end the deal, preferring his company's own frugal four-seater. Suspecting this, Hayek had quietly approached rivals; BMW, Fiat, General Motors and Renault all said no before Daimler-Benz agreed.
The partners announced Micro Compact Car in Stuttgart in March 1994, with Swatch's parent holding 49 percent and Daimler-Benz 51. Hayek wanted Swatch in the name; Daimler insisted on something neutral, and the internal acronym Smart won. From 74 candidate sites, a French town, Hambach, was chosen for the factory, soon dubbed Smartville. Engineer Johann Tomforde had suppliers such as Magna and Faurecia build and even fit their own modules on the line, sharing development costs.
Jacques Chirac and Helmut Kohl opened the plant in October 1997, but prototypes proved unstable in emergency swerves, including the Swedish moose test. The launch slipped to October 1998 while a new chief engineer lowered the car, widened its track and added front ballast. It arrived in nine European countries with an ordinary petrol engine, and Daimler soon bought out Hayek's side completely.
Expansion into a roadster and the four-seat Forfour did not pay: the unit lost nearly four billion euros between 2003 and 2006 and was folded into DaimlerChrysler. In 2019 Mercedes-Benz and China's Geely formed a joint venture worth about 830 million dollars, based in Ningbo, to build electric Smarts in China for sale worldwide.
Source: Smart (marque)
