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Smart runs a Forfour out of town on rails

What's smarter, driving a city car to get where you're going, or taking the train? The answer likely depends on where you live, where you're going, and how good the train service is between the two points. But Smart is out to answer that question in its own way. The British division of Mercedes' kid brother has taken one of its new Forfours and modified it to run on rails. Not metaphorically handle like it's on rails, but actually drive on train tracks. You know, like an actual train. Only smaller. Much, much smaller. Where a locomotive might have a 17-liter engine and weigh 70 metric tons, the Smart comes in with less than one by both counts. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, Smart says it took six months of engineering and computer-aided design work to get it all lined up. The company teamed up with British train-builder Interfleet for the conversion process that necessitating replacing the rolling stock with 22-inch solid steel wheels weighing around 180 pounds a piece, disconnecting the steering, and welding aluminum supports between the axles to lock everything in place. The result was dubbed the Smart Forrail. It was demonstrated on a 10-mile stretch of railroad through Sussex, UK, run by the privately operated Bluebell Railway. But after the demonstration was done and the video above was shot, the vehicle was converted back to road-going specification. Which is a bit of a shame, because just once we'd like to get into a car (with the engine in the back, no less) and say to a confused passenger: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." A SMARTER WAY TO GET FROM A TO B: THE smart forrail Note: Do not try this at home... The new smart forfour is a pretty effective point-to-point machine. It can drive from London to Aberdeen non-stop for as little as GBP39. Its four occupants will be comfy on the 540-mile journey too, even if they're significantly taller than the car is wide. The smart forfour is tiny on the outside, yet clever engineering means its interior is vast and is packed with technology to help make the journey fun, relaxing and safe. It stands a good chance of being the ultimate commuting machine, were it not for one obvious rival. The forfour is reliant on roads, meaning the humble train has an obvious advantage in that it can get from point-to-point through a more direct route. When it comes to outright speed and ruthless efficiency, it's one-nil to the train. Not all is lost, though.

Car2go San Diego's latest 'update' is to shut the whole thing down

Not enough people in San Diego like sharing cars. Or, at a minimum, they don't like sharing Car2go Smart Fortwo vehicles. That's why the five-year-old point-to-point, short-term car rental service is shutting down at the end of the year. So, sorry, but if you're looking for a way home from your New Year's Eve party, the Car2go you drove there won't be available. Daimler's Car2go car sharing service launched in San Diego back in November, 2011 and changed from an all-electric fleet to gas cars this past March. Despite the shift, drivers didn't show up. As Car2go put it, "unfortunately we have not seen enough adoption of our unique one–way carsharing service here to continue operations at this point." Car2go's services in other cities (like Seattle and Columbus) remain in operation, and anyone with an account in San Diego will (as before) be able to use vehicles in those cities. There are 42,000 Car2go members who were using 255 vehicles in San Diego, but the company needed more to make it work. Car2go said that, "We truly hope that as more people around the world like you adopt carsharing and embrace all its economic and environmental benefits, we might one day resume our service here." You can read the announcement email below. Car2go - Important Service Update by AutoblogGreen on Scribd This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

San Diego Car2go fleet replaced with 400 2014 Smart Fortwo EVs

The city of San Diego was the first in the US to get an all-electric fleet of Car2go carsharing vehicles. Back in 2011, the Daimler-owned carsharing service started offering local drivers the chance to get to their destination in a battery-powered car for around 40 cents a minute. It's proven to be a success, with over a million trips taken in the city since launch. Car2go has been changing how it runs the program, introducing charging incentives last year. Now, the entire fleet of EVs is going to be replaced with 400 2014 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive vehicles. The news is welcome, since each iteration of the Fortwo ED improves on the previous version, but it again highlights just how long we will have to wait in the US to get the totally updated EV. If it was coming before 2016 or early 2017, as is currently the plan, maybe Car2go wouldn't be so eager to update right now. As always, you asked and we listened! As always, you asked and we listened! We are very excited to share the news that beginning today we are replacing our current fleet with 400 powerful 2014 smart fortwo Electric Drives. The addition of our new vehicles will also increase the car2go San Diego fleet size providing members with more vehicles throughout the Home Area. These brand new vehicles, while maintaining their zero-emissions footprint, have a much smoother acceleration, and overall, a more comfortable car2go driving experience that we know our members will truly enjoy (especially on the freeway). We hope to have the entire fleet switched out in a very short period of time. When driving a new car2go vehicle you'll notice stronger acceleration and breaking. Due to the different handling experiences, you should familiarize yourself with the two cosmetic differences between the old and new vehicles. The new vehicles will have the smart logo inside of the grille whereas old vehicles have the logo on the hood. The car2go logo is also larger on the new vehicles. Since launch, the car2go Home Area has expanded to 45 square miles within San Diego, providing all of our members the flexibility to get to their destinations at their convenience without having to return the vehicle. Today, we have seen nearly 1,000,000 car2go trips taken since our initial launch in San Diego in November 2011 as the largest electric carsharing fleet in the nation. We are constantly striving to be member focused to get you what you want and appreciate all the feedback we receive from our members.