2017 Smart Fortwo on 2040-cars

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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.

Smart Fortwo spied with production-ready body

Fans of super-minis, take note - here's your first look at the all-new Smart Fortwo. The teensy, tiny city car skipped out in full camouflage, but lacking any shape-hiding body cladding. Immediately noticeable is just how tiny it is. It looks even smaller than the Smart Fortwo that's on the road now, but that's merely an optical illusion - it's not as long, but has a larger footprint overall.
The rear overhang is virtually non-existent, while the new Smart looks to be sporting a snub-nose look, with both designs going a long way towards highlighting the reduction in length. Riding on a miniaturized version of the architecture that will underpin the Smart Forfour and Renault Twingo, our spies are reporting that this car will have its engine mounted in the back and that it will drive the rear wheels.
Gas, diesel and a next-generation of the Fortwo ElectricDrive should all be expected when the third-gen Smart hits the Geneva Motor Show stage in March.

Smart celebrates 1.5 million Fortwo models built, prepares to upgrade factory

Smart is celebrating 1.5 million Fortwos built since 1998 at its plant in Hambach, France, before it goes offline for an extended summer break. The 1.5 millionth Fortwo is a white Electric Drive Cabriolet, but it isn't known which market it will be sold in.
The milestone is highlighted by the reason for the extended break, which starts in July and continues through August: The plant will be receiving a 200 million euro upgrade to prepare it for a next-generation Smart vehicle, a newly designed "four-seated urban mobility car" (aka, the 2015 Smart Forfour) that will be available in 2014. In addition, a new, environmentally friendly liquid-paint shop will be built at the plant, replacing the old powder-paint shop and representing the largest individual project in the upgrade, requiring a cool 50 million euro.
For more details on Smart's immediate future, check out the press release below.