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According to a new report, Daimler will stop selling its 100% electric smart cars in the United States and Canada after 2019.
Sources told TechCrunch that Daimler would end sales of its Smart Fortwo by the end of the model year and that the company has confirmed its decision. A spokesperson for Daimler AG sent a statement to Techcrunch by email:
"After a thorough review, smart will abandon its smart EQ fortwo electric battery model in the US and Canadian markets at the end of the fiscal year 2020. A number of factors, including the market decline micro-cars in the United States and Canada, coupled with high certification costs for a low-volume model, are at the heart of this decision. "
Mercedes-Benz Smart and Authorized Dealers would continue, it seems, to provide service and spare parts to the owners of all Smart models. Sales will continue until the end of the year.
The Smart brand became 100% electric in North America in 2017 and many Mercedes-Benz dealers stopped selling Smart cars shortly thereafter.
Fortwo's Smart is still listed on its US website in both the Coupé and Cabrio versions, starting at $ 23,900 for the base model Coupé.
Although out of the North American market, the Smart brand is not dead. Daimler and Geely announced last month a 50/50 joint venture to make Smart an all-electric "global" brand, made in China. This new generation of electric smart cars will be launched in 2022.
Last year, Daimler announced that Smart would be fully electric in Europe by 2020.
Electrek's Take
It's not a huge surprise to see this happen. Smart cars were not so popular at first in the United States, and once dealers began to give up selling electric models, the writing was probably on the wall. It is also difficult to justify paying about $ 20,000 for a small electric car that does not excel at all, in addition to being electric and tiny.
One of the big questions about Smart leaving the market is what it could mean for the future of small city-oriented American cars. We have recently seen a number of automakers embrace "urban" electric mobility concepts. Although the possibilities are interesting, especially as the future electrifies and more and more young people continue to settle in the city, we wonder if production microcars or "Mobility solutions" will soon appear on the North American market.
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