2016 Smart Fortwo Prime on 2040-cars

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2014 Smart ForTwo prototype shows itself

From the looks of these spy shots, Daimler is hard at work on the 2014 Smart ForTwo, giving us our first look next generation of this micro car. With the partnership between Renault and Daimler finally coming to fruition, the Smart will likely share a platform with the Renault Twingo, and it will come in gasoline, diesel and electric variants.
In terms of styling, the test mule doesn't reveal much, but expect the new ForTwo to utilize some of the design cues introduced on recent concept vehicles like the 2011 ForVision Concept and the 2012 For-Us Concept. One thing we can see with this prototype is that the car appears to have gotten a little bigger with boxier proportions closer to the Scion iQ. Thanks to a bolted-on scoop on the rear part of the car's roof, we can tell that the 2014 ForTwo will continue to have its engine mounted in the rear.
For a release date, the production version of the new ForTwo appears to be heading to the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, but we wouldn't be surprised to see another ForTwo-teasing Smart concept later this year.

Autoblog Podcast #390

Episode #390 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing and Sebastian Blanco from Autoblog Green talk about the 2015 Ford Mustang specs, the 2016 Smart models, a proposal to add real-world numbers to EPA economy tests and the potential downside of autonomous cars. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #390: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: 2015 Ford Mustang specs 2016 Smart FourTwo and FourFour EPA wants road tests The downside of autonomous cars In the Autoblog Garage: 2014 Nissan Leaf 2015 Audi A3 Sportback E-Tron 2014 Scion tC Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Sebastian Blanco Runtime: 01:33:35 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Mustang Specs - 34:40 2016 Smart Models - 51:14 EPA Tests - 01:02:57 Autonomous Cars - 01:11:19 Q&A - 01:21:22 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts Audi Ford Nissan Scion smart Electric Hybrid

Car2go brings incentives to charging in San Diego

Plugging in a vehicle to get power makes sense when that vehicle is owned by one person or family and – like most of the cars on the planet – sits still for most of the day. But when you're trying to share an EV, or a few hundred of them, charging time becomes doubly important. You need those electrons to move but every minute spent charging is time the car can't be shared. So, in San Diego, the all-electric Car2go program is changing how it gets more juice into its battery-powered Smart cars. While Car2go users have always been able to park at a charging station and plug in, Car2go has needed to use a fleet team to move the cars around and make sure they're charged up. To encourage users to leave the cars in a new downtown "Incentive Zone" (where, we presume, the fleet team will have an easier time recharging the cars), they can get free drive time just for parking the car in the right area. If the drive is over 10 minutes, they'll get a 10-minute credit. Since the Smart EDs can take up to six hours to charge, parking them in a central are should simplify things. The new policy started yesterday and the free minutes will last until the end of the year.