smart News

It's not easy being small. You go unnoticed in crowds and have to ask taller people to reach objects on high shelves for you. With cars though it's not always a bad thing, or at least that's what Smart will tell you. When your business is making small cars, you extol the virtues inherent in lack of...

The City of San Diego has become the first city in North America to offer an all-electric car sharing network, thanks to Car2Go. A fleet of more than 300 all-electric Smart ForTwo Electric Drives were present at the November 18 launch event. A subsiduary of Daimler North America Corporation, the...

It isn't just the cars that are going electric at the Frankfurt Auto Show, currently open to the public until September 25. Two-wheeled electric vehicles are popular too. Frankfurt show is very much focused on urban mobility - and having driven through the city during the press days last week...

Mercedes Benz is hoping a targeted television advertising campaign, accompanied by low-interest financing, is all it will need to reignite U.S. interest in the Smart brand.

While Smart used the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show to release its new, upgraded Fortwo Electric Drive and the production Smart eBike, the new Forvision concept previewed a few weeks ago gives us an idea what the next generation Fortwo might look like. Still a Smart... Importantly, the Forvision is...

We thought the 2011 Geneva Motor Show was one of the best ever for electric cars and green vehicles, but the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, starting in less than a week, is shaping up to be even better. We'll be covering the show in-depth next week, but in the meantime we've rounded up all the electric...

A few weeks ago we told you about the third generation Smart ForTwo Electric Drive which was due to be unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. With a faster top speed, better range and ultra-fast 1 hour recharge capability, the new version of the diminutive city car should hit the roads next year...

The 2011 Smart ForTwo minicar: Cramped, noisy, slow and unsafe, right? If you answered yes to all those then the new team running Smart USA for Daimler AG is banking on a new educational advertising campaign drawing you in. Smart USA thinks the slide in popularity of the model is down to what the...

Popular airport rental car firm Hertz has been working alongside Hotel chain Marriott for 30 years to unite weary travelers with a set of wheels while they’re away from home -- but now visitors to San Francisco can opt to rent an electric car from the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront...

The 2011 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive may be the smallest, most compact highway-capable electric car on the market, but its pathetic top speed, sluggish acceleration, limited range and expensive price tag haven’t gained it many fans. But that may all change in a little under a month as...

Life is so unfair sometimes. Car companies have been dangling the carrot of smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles in front of us for a few years now and though we've managed to grab vehicles like the MINI, Honda Fit and Ford Fiesta (and the Chevrolet Spark is on the way), we're still denied many...

Yesterday we brought you news of a highly camouflaged all-electric minicar spotted in the center of Berlin and wearing the unmistakable linked ring Audi badge. At the time, we postulated that the tiny electric runabout was probably Audi’s e-tron city concept car. Now Audi has confirmed that...

City car-sharing schemes have become more popular in recent years as the cost of owning a car rockets, but until now they’ve focused on traditional gasoline-engined cars. Not any more. The City of San Diego has just become the first North American city to host a carsharing scheme made up...

It may only be two weeks since Germany’s Chancellor Merkel announced that her government would help bring 1 million plug-in vehicles to the roads of Germany by 2020 but her bold goal is already being dismissed as impossible by the very automakers her Government is planning to help. Enter...

With the rising gas prices it may seem like you have to give up things in order to save money at the pump. You can combine trips to save fuel, keep your tires inflated properly, make sure your car is tuned up and drive to maximize your mpgs. With the latest top of top list from TheCarConnection.com...

It's hard to start a car company. Really, really, really, really, really hard. Which is why little Wheego Electric Cars is having a tough time of it at the moment. Last week, CEO Mike McQuary told industry trade journal Automotive News that the company was "living hand-to-mouth" and that its first...

The motoring world is gripped with Beetlemania at the moment, and it's got nothing to do with four plucky young musicians from England. Instead, Volkswagen's latest incarnation of the popular Beetle has been wowing the crowds at New York, Berlin and Shanghai, and virtually anyone with access to a...

You’d be forgiven for thinking that German automaker Daimler was trying to build its own little electric car empire. Not only does it have active electric car projects running with Nissan-Renault, BYD and Tesla, but it has now announced intent to work on a project with the automotive arm of...

In the electric car realm there are many players, a lot of them small. So if we asked you if you had heard of a Wheego, you wouldn’t be alone if your answer was no. That is the fun of auto shows and in the Rocky Mountain region, the 2011 Denver Auto Show is living up to the reputation of...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf has a waiting list. So does the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and as for the Tesla Roadster, well, it's probably too expensive. So what do you do if you want to drive around in a plug-in vehicle right now? You could always build one, but that seems like too much hard work. Instead, you...