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Smart will go electric-only in United States and Canada

By 2018, the Smart car brand will be only known as an electric vehicle manufacturer in the US. According to Automotive News, sales of gasoline-powered Smart cars will cease later this year, and Daimler will develop the product portfolio into a solely electrified one. This coincides with the upcoming launch of the new generation Smart ForTwo electric drive models this summer. Automotive News claims to have obtained a letter from Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dietmar Exler sent to US dealers. In it, he underlines the decision to go electric-only, saying "developments within the micro-car segment present some challenges for the current Smart product portfolio," and that the change will only affect North American sales. Production of US-destined gasoline-powered Smarts will cease in April, and sales will continue until stock runs out. The current generation has been on sale from 2015, and it hasn't reached the 2014 sales peak of 10.453 units of the previous generation; last year, there were little more than 6.200 Smarts sold in the States. The first electric drive Smarts were unveiled a decade ago, but they became available in the USA five years later, initially via various trial programs, including Car2Go fleets. Related Video:

Dealers mobilize to protect their margins from automaker subscription services

Six individual auto brands — Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo — have established or are trialing a vehicle subscription service in the U.S. Three third-party companies — Flexdrive, Clutch and Carma — run brand-agnostic subscription services. And three automakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors — have also launched short-term rental services. Dealers, afraid of how these trends might affect their margins, are building political and lawmaking campaigns to protect their revenue streams. So far, three states are investigating automaker subscriptions, and Indiana has banned any such service until next year. It's certain that those three states are the first fronts in a long political and legal battle. Powerful dealer franchise laws mandate the existence of dealers and restrict how automakers are allowed to interact with customers to sell a vehicle. On top of that, Bob Reisner, CEO of Nassau Business Funding & Services, said, "Dealers and their associations are among the strongest political operators in many states. They as a group are difficult for state politicians to vote against." In California earlier this year, the state Assembly debated a bill with wide-ranging provisions to protect against what the California New Car Dealers Association called "inappropriate treatment of dealers by manufacturers." One of those provisions stipulated that subscription services need to go through dealers, but that item got stripped out when dealers and manufacturers agreed to discuss the matter further. In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a moratorium on all subscription programs by dealers or manufacturers until May 1, 2019, to give legislators more time to investigate. Dealers in New Jersey have taken their campaign to the state capitol, asking that the cars in subscription programs get a different classification for registration purposes. Automakers run the current subscription services and own the vehicles. Sign-ups and financial transactions happen online or through apps, leaving dealers to do little more than act as fulfillment centers to various degrees, with little legal recourse as to compensation amounts when they're called on to deliver or service a car. That's a bad base to build on for business owners who've sunk millions of dollars into their operations.

Nissan Z Proto, next-gen Hyundai Tucson and a hi-po mystery Bronco | Autoblog Podcast #645

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder and News Editor Joel Stocksdale. In the news this week, Ford has teased some sort of high-performance Bronco, Nissan unveiled the Z Proto, Hyundai revealed the next-gen Tucson and GMC teased the Hummer EV's "Crab Mode." Our editors break that all down for you, and share some insights and opinions before they turn to the cars in their own driveways. This week, they've been spending time with the 2020 Mercedes-AMG G 63, as well as the 2020 BMW Alpina B7. Autoblog Podcast #645 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Ford's beefed-up Bronco prototype stars in new teaser photo Nissan Z Proto previews the retro, rear-drive, turbo, manual future of the Z All the Nissan Z cars that got us to the Z Proto 2022 Hyundai Tucson debuts with striking styling inside and out GMC Hummer teases crab mode, reveal set for Oct. 20 Cars we're driving: 2020 Mercedes-AMG G 63 2020 BMW Alpina B7 Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: