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  • Rinspeed Dock+Go – enter the backpack on wheels

    In Cars, International News, smart / By / / 12 comments

    Something a little different then. Swiss company Rinspeed will be showcasing its newest concept called Dock+Go at the Geneva show next week. Designed by Frank Rinderknecht and built by Peter Kägi and his company 4erC, the concept is actually a tag-on item, essentially an easy-to-dock, single-axle backpack on wheels.

    The third on-demand axle pack is modular, so it’s a matter of strapping it on for extended carrying capacity, without creating unnecessary space nor superfluous weight when it’s not needed. For demonstration purposes, the company has selected a smart fortwo as the tango partner.

    Different “packs” can turn fortwo into something far more capacious – for instance, a pack can turn the car into a pizza delivery vehicle, complete with a built-in isothermal box. Or it’ll allow winter sports enthusiasts to comfortably stow their gear. In Geneva, Rinspeed is due to show a rolling “sound pack,” which multimedia and infotainment specialist Harman has filled with the latest high-end sound solutions in order to guarantee a first class acoustical experience.

    The Dock+Go pack is finished in a silver outer skin from AkzoNobel, with a finish that resembles sparkling ice crystals, and for wheels it wears 7.5-inch AEZ wheels wrapped with 205/40 series low-rolling-resistance Goodyear donuts. Other features to be found on the unit include a PTC heater from Eberspaecher catem (to keep things warm) and a Lumitec EL (electroluminescent) lighting system on the side panels.

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  • smart for-us concept – the tiny tyke plays pocket pickup

    In Cars, International News, smart / By / / 10 comments

    It’s called the smart for-us, and it’s a tongue-in-cheek take on what an urban pickup should really look like. The tiny tot, which debuted in Detroit, measures in at 3.54 metres long, 1.5 metres wide and 1.7 metres tall, making it an absolute dwarf compared to a typical American pickup.

    The concept EV’s drive system is based on the smart fortwo electric drive’s, with a 55 kW magneto-electric motor being provided juice by a 17.6 kWh lithium-ion battery. Performance specs include 130 Nm of torque and a 120 km/h top speed.

    Design-wise, the for-us exterior features convex and, as the company puts it, sensuously shaped body surfaces. The large brand emblem is proudly sported on the grille, and the front has a pronounced three-dimensional design with an under-ride guard finishing off the lower part of the front end.

    At 2.48 metres long, the wheelbase is 613 mm more than the fortwo’s, and the track has also been widened by 50 mm on each side to help emphasise the robust look of the study. At the same time the extremely short overhangs at the front and rear make it exceedingly compact.

    The tailboard at the rear of the smart for-us is electrically driven. When it opens, the cargo floor – including tailboard – retracts by 280 mm, and then the tailgate slides down in a parallel position, allowing easy access to the load on the 900 mm cargo area.

    Inside, the for-us features sleek, taut surfaces in mother-of-pearl white, with its technical functional elements finished in brushed aluminum to provide contrast. Meanwhile, the seat shells, which are open in the middle, are covered with a soft yellow fabric throw, giving them a hammock-like seating feel.

    Rather smartly, in place of a conventional rear-view mirror, the smart for-us features a smartphone accommodated in a holder on top of the instrument panel support, allowing the driver to see what’s happening on the road behind with the help of an integrated video camera.

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  • smart fortwo electric drive on display at 1 Utama

    In Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, Local News, smart / By / / 20 comments

    No, it’s not available commercially in Malaysia, and even if it was, it would easily cost more than a C 250 CGI. The smart fortwo electric drive seen here is actually making a stopover in the country – the Singaporean-based vehicle is in town courtesy of its appearance at the recent 1st Malaysian-German Sustainable Automotive Mobility Conference 2011, which was organised by the Malaysian German Chamber of Commerce.

    You can however catch the car in the metal, if that be your sort of thing, over the weekend – the fortwo electric drive is on display at the Highstreet zone of 1 Utama shopping centre, and it’ll be there until Sunday.

    A bit about the car, for those who don’t know what it’s all about yet. The second-generation fortwo electric drive is equipped with a 30 kW permanent magnet motor offering 120 Nm of torque, and driven by a single-speed fixed gear ratio transmission.

    The car’s water-cooled 16.5 kWh lithium-ion battery, which is housed between the axles and occupies the space where the fuel tank is located in a conventional fortwo, is good enough to give it an operating range of 135 km. Which won’t quite take you from KL to KLIA and back, but ample enough for light-duty in-town use.

    The 148 kg battery – made by Tesla Motors – has a full recharge time of eight hours, juiced via a household socket, but if you only need to do around 30-40 kilometres of travelling a day, the vehicle only needs to be charged for three hours.

    And if you putter around at the average 25 to 30 km/h that smart says is normal in city traffic, the fortwo electric drive can go for around four to five hours continuously before it needs to be recharged.

    Other performance figures for the 890 kg rear-wheel drive fortwo include a 0-50 km/h (yes, you read right, half a century) time of 5.8 seconds (or if you prefer, a 0-60 km/h time of 6.5 seconds) and a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

    As you’d expect, due to the cost and supporting infrastructure limitations, there aren’t that many fortwo electric drives about – the few thousand examples worldwide are in the hands of selected customers, with leases offered for a period of four years and 60,000 kilometres. In the case of this example, it’s part of a EV case study being conducted by the Singaporean government.

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  • Nissan-derived four-door Smart for USA plan scrapped!

    In Cars, smart / By / / 1 comment

    Daimler AG has scrapped plans to sell a smart-badged B-segment car in the US based on a Nissan. We first heard news of this plan in October last year where it was reported that Smart USA had signed a MOU with Nissan to collaborate on a new vehicle for the US market. There were even sketches of a car that looked like a Nissan Micra with smart styling.

    Mercedes-Benz USA also announced that it would be handling the smart brand itself in the USA from now on, taking over distributorship of the brand from dealer Penske. This is in line with Daimler AG’s global integration of Smart into its Mercedes-Benz cars unit since September last year, with Smart USA being the last country where it has remained separate until now.

    But the real reason for the integration of Smart until MB Cars is to help with the upcoming tighter Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to be implemented in the USA in 2016. CAFE is a strange regulation in the US that averages the fuel economy of all models sold by a company. CAFE is currently at 30.2mpg but in 2016 it will be 39.0mpg.

     

  • smart fortwo lightshine edition – tarting up tiny, again!

    In Cars, International News, smart / By / / 16 comments

    You’d figure that something already as cute as a button doesn’t really need to be transmogrified, but why deprive good marketing when the opportunity presents itself? Case in point – the smart fortwo cdi, which now comes in a special limited run called the lightshine edition.

    It’s based on the passion coupé model, and exterior-wise, the lightshine edition gets a combination of light green matte body panels, LED daytime running lights, colour coded headlamp bezels, ‘lightshine’ badging and new pulse three-double spoke alloys in an exclusive paint finish.

    As for the interior, the lightshine gets new upper dashboard and glovebox designs along with improved materials and new fabric pattern. The passion model’s high line navigation system is to be found here, with a new larger touchscreen, CD/DVD/SD functionality and iPod interface in the mix.

    Other dress up items include a sporty three-spoke steering wheel with paddle shifters and floor mats with the ‘lightshine’ logo. Just 86 of these cars are destined for the UK market, all equipped with the 54 hp cdi engine and softip transmission of the pulse version.

    Gallery after the jump.
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  • Look what the cat dragged in – the Hello Kitty smart fortwo

    In Cars, International News, smart / By / / 20 comments

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    Now, why be content with a mere pencil/lunch box or backpack when you can have a car that shows the world just how much you love this particular Japanese feline?

    Yes, if you happen to own a smart fortwo, you can now express your love for Hello Kitty in much bigger fashion, with nothing less than a car wrap that screams kitty kat all the way.

    smart USA has been offering a series of different vehicle wraps, which are made of 3M vinyl, through its smart Expressions customisation program launched a few months ago. Now, it has teamed up with Sanrio to offer Hello Kitty vehicle wraps for the car.

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    Three different full body wrap designs (named Hello Kitty Everywhere, Hello Kitty Peeking and Hello Kitty Happy), each with a selection of colour schemes, are available, in addition to a series of partial wrap designs and colours.

    In total, there are 22 full and partial wrap design and colour combinations from which to choose, so you can go ga ga with this cat the way you fancy, in the process transforming the cute car into a supercute one, for some at least. I’d like to see how many guys will be caught dead in one of these.

    Gallery after the jump.
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  • Smart to sell a Nissan-derived B-segment car in the US

    In Cars, International News, Nissan, smart / By / / 14 comments

    Smart USA has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nissan on the collaboration of a new vehicle for sale in the US market. The car, a five-door, B-segment gasoline engine model derived from Nissan, is expected to go on sale in late 2011.

    The sketches provide an inkling as to what the future model, which will be built on a new global platform in one of Nissan’s factories in the US, might look like. “The new vehicle will expand smart USA’s product lineup, offering five-seat capacity while maintaining the core principles of efficiency and conservation,” said smart USA president Jill Lajdziak.

    This looks to be the first step in the broad cooperation plan Smart’s parent company Daimler and the Renault-Nissan alliance have planned, as an interim before new products fully jointly developed by Daimler, Nissan and Renault arrive in the market in 2013.

    High resolution pictures after the jump.

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  • Smart releases offcial pictures of their escooter concept

    In Bikes, Concept Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, smart / By / / 7 comments

    Smart has just released official pictures of their escooter concept. Looks wise, it sports LED lights, solar cells and a green/white paint scheme. The scooter uses a 48-volt lithium ion battery pack, which gives it an approximate range of 100 kilometres over a single charge. When juice does run out, a normal household socket could be used to recharge the batteries.

    In terms of performance you can expect the scooter to reach a top speed of 45km/h, as it is driven by a disc shaped wheel hub motor in the rear wheel with an output of 4kW/5.3hp. Apart from the powertrain, Smart say that the chassis structure is based on the tridion safety cell of the Smart Fortwo”, with the use of swappable plastic body panels.

    Other features available with the Smart escooter are anti lock brakes, Blind Spot Assist and an airbag that is tucked under the handle bar paneling. Just like the Mini E Scooter, the Smart escooter also has a compartment for an iPhone. It replaces the normal instrument panel and gives you speed, range, battery status and it can also act as a navigation system. An image gallery is available after the jump.
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  • Daimler to use Renault-Nissan electric vehicle tech

    In Cars, Nissan, Renault, smart / By / / 7 comments

    Here are some updates on the collaboration between Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Back in April when the partnership was announced, the stated scope was focussed on small car development and engine sharing (read our previous post here). In a recent interview with Reuters, Thomas Weber, Head of Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, has confirmed that the German carmaker will broaden the partnership with Renault-Nissan into electric vehicle (EV) development.

    The goal is to cut costs by building scale. “We won’t be able to meet the target of 95 grams CO2 in 2020 without electric vehicles with batteries and fuel cells,” Weber was quoted as saying, adding “it won’t be easy to then also earn money with these cars.”

    Besides that, the partnership will birth a shared RWD architecture for the next smart fortwo, a new smart four-seater and the next-gen Renault Twingo. The first of these cars will roll out from 2013 with the smart plant in France building the two-seater versions and the Renault plant in Slovenia building the four-seater variant. It was announced that there will be EV versions.

    The Renault-Nissan Alliance is one of the main movers of EVs in the motoring world. They have invested an estimated €4 billion into the field and have plans to launch up to eight EVs in at least five key segments – starting with the Nissan Leaf, which will be delivered to European customers early next year. US allotment for the car has been fully spoken for. Next in line are the Renault Fluence ZE saloon and Kangoo Express ZE in mid 2011.

    Alliance boss Carlos Ghosn is very bullish about EVs, saying that they will comprise 10% of all car sales within a decade, and they’re expecting to build 500,000 plug ins by 2012.

     

  • MINI and Smart to unveil electric scooter concepts in Paris

    In Bikes, BMW, International News, smart / By / / 1 comment

    Scooters seem to the in thing at Smart and BMW-owned MINI, as they both announced the presentation of electric models in Paris, at the end of the month.

    Along with a few sketches of the concept electric model, MINI has revealed plans of showcasing the scooters in three different trims. One will even feature a design similar to the MINI E project, their plug-in electric Cooper.

    No other details about the scooter have been released, but speculation has pointed to the use of lithium ion batteries in MINI’s bikes.

    Similarly, apart from a few sketches of their scooter concept, Smart has revealed very little of its electric concept. We’ll definitely keep you updated as more information is released at the Paris show. Look after the jump for more pictures.
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