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Fashion designer Jeremy Scott gives Smart Fortwo Electric some wing bling [w/video]

If you were to gaze upon the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive and ponder what you might add to sort of, you know, set it off a bit, you probably wouldn't consider adding a pair of wings. That's because you are not Jeremy Scott. He, on the other hand, would do exactly that. And has.
That's right, that winged wonder you see pictured above is not some sort of Redbull-induced hallucination. Rather, it is the result of a creative collaboration between Mercedes-Benz Cars Advanced Design Studios and the aforementioned famed fashion designer called, appropriately enough, the Smart ForJeremy. And, it has just made its debut at the LA Auto Show.
Besides the faux-feather flourishes that light up when the brakes are applied, the outward appearance of this 2013 limited special edition is tarted up with a custom set of propeller-inspired wheels with just enough shiny to balance the chromed finish of its tridion shell, mirrors and, um, "eyebrows."

A quirky proposition | 2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive First Drive

I want to cruise around with the person who's perfect for the new 2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. The pocketable EV is, as we've said before, more of an accessory than it is practical transportation. I think that the person who wants not only a Smart car but the electric one is a person I'd like to hang out with. This is a fun and quirky little plug-in, and I'm pretty sure that whoever buys one has a combination of a sense of humor and environmentalism I can vibe with. Smart says that it is a pioneer of electric drive vehicles, and that's true to a degree. The brand was conceived as an electric one, so points for history there, but leadership then does not equal leadership now. Just look at the official Smart ED page, which still shows the old model ED, or remember that the the electric model's launch in the US has been delayed. Instead of the promised "late 2016," the ED will now arrive some time in the spring of 2017. The good news is that the car is worth the wait, with a few caveats. If the Fortwo is naturally a city car, the Fortwo ED is a you-better-believe-it a city car. The ED is powered by a 17.6-kWh lithium-ion battery with 17.2 kWh of usable energy. That's good for a whopping 100 miles of range ... but only in Europe where they use the NEDC test cycle. Here in the US, expect to see about 70 or 80 miles from the EPA (The current model, based on the previous-gen Fortwo, gets 68 miles). Given that limitation, this is not the car that wants to wander far from the skyscrapers. You won't either, in one of these, because you'll be having too much fun winning traffic. Zippy on steroids is a fair way to describe the fun acceleration you can get from a Fortwo ED. Sure, the 0-60 time isn't record-breaking (in fact, it's a leisurely 11.5 seconds to get to 62 miles per hour), but the 0-30 time is what matters in the stoplight-to-stoplight sprint (the ED goes zero-to-60 kilometers per hour, or 37 mph, in 4.9 seconds). There's only a tiny an 81-horsepower electric motor that provides 118 pound-feet of torque, but when it's placed over the traction axle in a small and light rear-wheel drive car like this, that's plenty to push your keister into the seat. If you're otherwise going to be maneuvering around delivery trucks and SUVs, at least stomping the accelerator will put a smile on your face. Speaking of fun, the tight, 22.8-foot turning radius is no joke. The first time you experience it, you will utter a word you were not meaning to say.

Mercedes-Benz may create electric-only brand

Daimler's Mercedes-Benz division may follow in fellow German automaker BMW's footsteps by launching its own separate brand for electric vehicles, Hybrid Cars says, citing German publication Handelsblatt, which quoted people familiar with the process. Daimler's board may make the decision to go ahead with the plan as early next month. And the brand may officially be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in September. Unlike BMW and the i brand, Mercedes would use its existing factories to produce the newly-branded vehicles instead of operating out of a separate one as the i brand does. The first vehicle under the brand is likely to be an SUV model based on the Mercedes-Benz GLC crossover vehicle and would start sales next year. The product line would be broadened further in 2020. Daimler declined to comment, according to Handelsblatt. Mercedes-Benz and BMW wouldn't be the only two German automakers with plans for more electric vehicle sales. Volkswagen has a plan to unleash as many as 20 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to the public by 2020, including the Phaeton and the Audi A8. On that note, reports surfaced last month that VW may build its own "Gigafacory" as it prepares to widen its plug-in vehicle push and bring down their costs. As for US sales, Smart sold 313 ForTwo Electric vehicles, down 43 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, BMW's i sales in the US fell 40 percent from a year earlier to 2,723. Currently, Mercedes-Benz's only two electric vehicles are the Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and the Smart ForTwo Electric two-seat vehicle. In the meantime, take a look at Autoblog's First Drive of the B-Class Electric. Related Video: News Source: Handelsblatt, Hybrid Cars Green Mercedes-Benz smart Electric