In early 2008, Diamler-Chrysler will begin selling its Smart car Fortwo, already for sale in Europe, in the United States. The car is currently a sales success in Canada outselling the Mini and Beetle. Viewers of "The Da Vinci Code" will recall it swerving down a Paris sidewalk.
GM, Toyota, Honda and Nissan all have really small models and of course there is the Mini Cooper. Hats off to the Dodge and Jeep store for pushing the envelope and marketing something even smaller.
Row home residents will appreciate a car that parks in 8 feet, 2-1/2 inches, that’s 2 feet shorter than the Mini. The car, scheduled for a redesign before it arrives, has 5 feet of headroom and a steel crash cage called a tridion safety cell, ESP (Electronic Stability Program) and various airbag systems.
The car will cost less than $15,000, get 40-69 mpg (depending on the source of information) from its 60 horsepower engine, and accelerate from 0 to 60 in just over 15 seconds. Expect it to show up in large cities first.
Diamler-Chrysler press release
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/9393
The Smart Cars are already available in the US from ZAP www.zapworld.com ZP (NYSE). A California based company who is also planning on brining a Brazilian made car to the US, the Obvio! 828, that is a hybrid that can run on any combination of ethanol and gas. Zap is also the only car company who is selling a Chinese manufactured car in the US the 100% electric Xebra city car .
Yes, but Diamler-Chrysler will have a dedicated dealership network in place.
Since your identity points to the ZAP website, maybe you can tell us how the current ZAP importation of the car will differ from the manufacturer selling it in 2008.
The Obvio sounds interesting.
The model currently imported and retrofitted will not be the same model that Daimler Chrysler is going to bring to the US. From what I know a model design has not been finalized. The Obvio 828 is a very unique car. There is currently a short video of it being driven on the Zap website www.zapworld.com
Send info about Electric Car
The Smart car isn't an electric car so I don't exactly understand your statement. Give me more information about what you are requesting and perhaps I can come up with an answer.