Rebuffed by BMW, Fiat, General Motors and Renault, he finally reached an informal agreement with Daimler-Benz AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars. Hayek had suspected that Piëch would seek to end the agreement with SMH upon his ascendancy to the CEO position therefore, he discreetly began approaching other car companies with the Swatchmobile project.
Volkswagen's own concept was believed to be a better business proposition, featuring four seats and more cargo room. Volkswagen had already been working on their own "three-litre car": a car which would consume three litres of fuel per 100 kilometres of driving (the eventual Volkswagen Lupo 3L). īy 1993, Ferdinand Piëch had become CEO of Volkswagen and he immediately sought to terminate the project with SMH. Hayek approached several automotive manufacturers and on 3 July 1991, he reached an agreement with Volkswagen to share development of the new project. This would also relieve SMH of the cost burden in setting up a distribution network. Thus, rather than directly competing, he preferred to cooperate with another company in the automotive industry. While design of the car was proceeding, Hayek feared existing manufacturers would feel threatened by the Swatchmobile. Hayek's private company Hayek Engineering AG began designing the new car for SMH, with seating for two and a hybrid drivetrain.
This idea soon became known as the "Swatchmobile". He believed that the automotive industry had ignored a sector of potential customers who wanted a small and stylish compact city car. In late 1982, SMH (makers of the Swatch brand of watches) CEO Nicolas Hayek began developing an idea for a new car using the same type of manufacturing strategies and personalization features used to popularize Swatch watches. Several variants on the original design have been introduced, with the original being the "Fortwo". After brief backing by Volkswagen, the first model was released by Daimler-Benz in October 1998. The design concept for the marque's automobiles began at Mercedes-Benz in the early 1970s to late 1980s. In its branding, the company lowercases its logotype and the logo incorporating a "c" and an arrow for the car's "cute", "compact", and "forward-thinking" styling, respectively.
The name Smart derives from the cooperation of the Swiss company Swatch with Mercedes-Benz: "Swatch Mercedes ART". smart GmbH was then absorbed by DaimlerChrysler (later Daimler AG) in 2006, making smart a brand within the Mercedes-Benz Cars division. MCC became a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler-Benz in 1998, and was subsequently renamed to MCC smart GmbH, then smart GmbH. The brand was founded in 1994 by Micro Compact Car AG (MCC), a joint venture between SMH and Daimler-Benz. Its distribution, marketing and aftersales activities in Europe are currently handled by smart Europe GmbH which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. It produces small battery electric vehicles in their manufacturing plant in China, while previously the brand was known to produce microcars and subcompacts, primarily the Fortwo and Forfour, at the Smartville in Hambach, Moselle, France and in the Revoz plant ( Novo Mesto, Slovenia). is a joint venture established by Mercedes-Benz AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2019 and aimed at producing Smart-badged cars in China to be marketed globally. Smart (stylized as smart) is a German automotive brand.
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