Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Smart EV (or ED)

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

malcolm

Active Member
Nov 12, 2006
3,072
1,760
The link dates back to the summer.

http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/18-07-06_9

The brushless DC motor is calibrated to produce 120Nm (88.5 ft lbs) peak torque and 30kW (40bhp) peak power in a package that weighs 70kg including the motor, gearbox, inverter and control electronics.

Power is provided by a Zebra liquid sodium nickel chloride battery, mounted under the floor near the centre of the vehicle. Running at 180-310V it has a specific power density of 194W/kg, giving a range of up to 72 miles in a standard EUDC test.

Zebras have similar energy densities to Li-ion, but lack the power density (and suffer badly from self-discharge according to Tesla's Martin Eberhard).  Battery pack must be fairly small given the mounting location and the range quoted.

Would be fun to get hold of one of these and upgrade the drive systems while we're all waiting for Tesla to export to the UK.
 
Smart ForTwo ED Car Review - March 26, 2008 - Car Reviews - Top Gear

Why ED? What was wrong with EV? Or just E, as in Smart-e?

Anyway, the gist is there's insufficient energy density in the given volume available for the batteries. But then, Mercedes are using Zebras :rolleyes:

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I doubt Smart is willing to jump too quickly into the EV market, especially in the US because the gassers are selling so well. Why create a viable EV using li-ions if the thing may actually sell to the detriment of the gassers? I would NEVER consider the smart-for-two, but may consider the EV version.
 
Berlin Hearts Electric Smarts

Berlin Hearts Electric Smarts
electriccarsgermany-200x131.jpg


---quote---
By Justin Berkowitz
September 9, 2008 - 0 views
Londoners know (because a fleet of almost 100 is already running): the electric Smart fortwo is an big improvement on the original. It’s economical and smooth, without the wheezy engine and the miserable, jerky transmission of the gas-powered (or God forbid, Diesel) version. Greeny Berliners think: electric cars would be the zero-emission way to go, if you could just charge them somewhere (who has a garage in the city?) Bringing both factors together and hoping that they gel, the German government has started a project with the generic-sounding name “e-mobility Berlin”. It will be the world’s biggest e-car pilot project, involving Daimler and RWE, a utility, which will install 500 public charging stations. The charging stations will have token solar cells, but are basically about coal-derived electricity (take that, global-warming activists!) Daimler’s main motivation is to field-test its e-Smarts, scheduled for massive roll-out in the magic year (guess!) On TV, I saw Angela Merkel, Germany’s often dour, physicist-by-training head of government talk about the project with bright eyes: “It only takes two hours to re-charge the batteries? Just the time you need to go shopping!” As they say, some ways of thinking die hard.

---unquote---

Brabus Smart ForTwo Defeats 39 Supercars, Wins Cannonball Europe
 
Last edited:
Wow! That would be a huge deal! I can't imagine M-B single-sourcing the battery if they could find more than one supplier, but even if Tesla has only a part of a deal like that it would be big.

I'm skeptical they can ramp up production to meet demand of that many packs. I think it'd be another Th!nk deal. Bad punn. :redface:
 
Smart ED launch is US will be low volume

look slike very litmited numbers are slotted for the US, available only by lease to "premium" buyers. Incidentally, this is odd to me from a strategic standpoint because the US is a critical market to understand for a short range EV and also they have a very important ZEV requirement to meet from the CARB mandate. I would have assumed the majority of the Smart EDs would have been depoloyed in CA.

from Automotive News (sub req'd) so I cut and paste the text here (don't tell anyone)

Low volume launch for electric Smart in the US


Rick Kranz
Automotive News Europe
February 2, 2009 06:01 CET


DETROIT -- Smart’s electric-powered ForTwo will be limited to several hundred vehicles for its US launch in 2010.
The car will be available in just a few US cities, said Anders-Sundt Jensen, vice president for Smart brand communications.
“We will launch it first in Berlin, then in Paris and Rome and we will continue to expand to other European cities,” Jensen said.
Among the cities under consideration for the first US sales are San Francisco and Austin, Texas. In 2012, the electric Smart will be offered in more cities.
Jensen said the electric Smart likely will be offered only with leases. Although it is too early to estimate the monthly lease payment, the car will have a premium price.
“The technology is quite expensive. Because the technology is an untraditional powertrain, you have a special customer requesting it. They are willing to pay a higher price,” Jensen said at the Detroit auto show.
The electric-powered ForTwo will go into production at the end of the year. Power will be supplied by lithium ion batteries that have a range of 100 kilometers to 110km.
Jensen said the electric-powered ForTwo eventually could account for 20 to 50 percent of Smart’s global production.
 
Interesting. Still a ways off as a possible "for the masses" vehicle.
Lease only at a "premium price" isn't what I was hoping to hear.
At least they do have plans to get some to the USA.
 
From dpeilow's linked article:

Tesla has sold more than 150 electric roadsters at $109K, showed a $128,500 high-performance version (the Tesla Sport) at Detroit and promises a $60K electric sedan - but recently admitted that the roadster costs $140K to build.

I saw this article the other day and commented on it. Tesla should do some damage control with this myth. Unfortunately, they fanned the flames with it earlier this year with the excuse for raising the 2008 prices.

They claim the roadster at $109K makes a modest profit. Both this article and the article from earlier today about Elon "spying on his employees" presents as fact that the Roadster loses money on every sale. I do not believe this is currently true, but it seems to be the conventional wisdom out there. I wish Tesla would correct these myths.