Speaking of Mercedes-Benz, I believe that everyone will be familiar with this Ashkenazi luxury brand with the reputation of "king of luxury cars", but if xiaobian tells you that the Daimler Group, to which the Mercedes-Benz brand belongs, its top two shareholders are from Chinese enterprises?
In February 2018, Geely acquired a 9.69% stake in the Daimler Group for $9 billion, becoming the group's largest shareholder. Then in 2019, BAIC Group, which has a deep relationship with the Mercedes-Benz brand, increased its stake in Daimler Group to 9.98%, surpassing Geely to become daimler's first shareholder, but what is intriguing is that this news was not released by BAIC Group until the end of last year.
But today Xiaobian does not want to discuss Geely and BAIC who is more rich, but wants to update a message to everyone, although the BAIC Group and mercedes-Benz brand are deeply bound, but has always been the role of "Mercedes-Benz car porter", basically have no say in the research and development of new models.
However, Geely is different, because on April 8, Geely is responsible for technology and production, and the mercedes-Benz global design team is responsible for the design of the new car smart #1 officially released. As the first model of the Smart Motor brand joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, smart #1 is based on the Geely SEA Haohan pure electric architecture, and is also the largest car in smart history, breaking the concept of the previous brand only building mini cars, reaching the level of small pure electric SUVs.
Specifically, smart #1 basically continues the design language of the previous concept car, the closed middle network with the matrix headlight group with the triangle shape on both sides, and the LED light strip through the front of the car, which further strengthens the sense of technology in the front face. At the same time, the trapezoidal grille under the front of the car is supplemented by the design of the air vents on both sides, which cleverly forms an "X" shape with the upper light group, which deepens the dynamic and visual impact of the front.
Side part, because the new car is positioned this time is a small pure electric SUV, so the design of the front and rear doors appeared for the first time on the smart model, while combining the suspension roof, hidden door handles, closed 19-inch low wind resistance wheels and other configurations, you can see that the new car is minimalist style this time, and the visual elements on the side of the vehicle are quite dynamic and concise.
And it is worth mentioning that the brand logo on the C-pillar of the new car, displayed in the picture released by Smart China, shows a certain "hydropsine effect", but it is more conventional in the pictures released by foreign media, so it is not excluded that the domestically listed version supports the optional configuration.
The rear part of the car, the eye looks like the smart #1 tail light group and mercedes-Benz new generation of fuel vehicle light group has the same thing, although it does not rule out the designer has the possibility of laziness, but the internal structure of this set of light groups is a new style, which uses a gradient lighting effect, while the entire light group is more rounded, also for the rear of the vehicle to add a sense of movement and layering.
In terms of interior, I have to admire the excellent design of the Mercedes-Benz global design team, and we can see that the car adopts a double panda color, supplemented by a large number of leather wrapping, stitching technology, chrome decorations, interior atmosphere lights, etc., and the interior texture of the entire cockpit is very outstanding. The combination of the suspension touch screen and the full LCD small dashboard is an effective improvement of the sense of technology in the car.
In terms of body size, although the smart #1 is a small pure electric SUV, thanks to the blessing of the Geely SEA Haohan pure electric architecture, the new car does not exceed 4 meters 3 length (4270mm) but has a wheelbase of 2750mm, which is enough to match the data of compact SUVs.
In the driver assistance part, the new car is equipped with smart Pilot intelligent driver assistance system, which supports adaptive cruise (ACC), lane keeping assist (LKA), blind spot monitoring system (BSD), traffic congestion assist (TJA) and other functions; at the same time, the car machine system is equipped with 12G running memory and 128G storage space, which ensures the smooth operation of the vehicle system.
Finally, the power performance part of the new car, this first version of the smart #1 model adopts the drive layout of the rear single motor, the maximum power of the motor is 272Ps, the peak torque is 343N·m, matching the ternary lithium battery with a capacity of 66kWh, the zero hundred acceleration time is 6.7 seconds, and the cruising range under CLTC conditions is 560km.
After understanding the basic situation of smart #1, it is not difficult for us to find that looking at the domestic small pure electric SUV market segment, whether it is product strength or brand power, the new car is indeed the existence of the ceiling level this time. Taking Nezha V, a popular player who is also a small pure electric SUV, as an example, the new car is stronger than the Nezha V in terms of power performance (providing 54/75/95Ps three power configurations), and at the same time in terms of space (Nezha V wheelbase is 2420mm) and endurance (Nezha V NEDC endurance is 401km) has also achieved comprehensive transcendence.
Of course, it is a bit unfair to discuss the difference in product strength between the two cars regarding price, but the official positioning of Smart #1 (small pure electric SUV) is like this. Perhaps to a certain extent, Geely has also played the role of a think tank within the Zhimada brand this time, and the positioning of the new car into the pure electricity market is so clever, it must be the idea provided by Geely, which understands the hearts of the chinese people better.
Write at the end
From the smallest micro-fuel vehicle on the market to today's small pure electric SUV, the change of the smart brand is refreshing to us. But as an automobile editor, I think that the cooperation between Geely and Mercedes-Benz may be more worthy of praise, after all, this represents the Chinese car brand on the world stage; after all, the initiative to find Geely to seek cooperation, that is the "king of luxury cars" Mercedes-Benz.
However, at the end of the article, I still want to remind everyone that do not be blinded by the cute appearance of smart #1, after all, this car has a Mercedes-Benz pedigree, and it is a new car based on a new pure electric architecture, and the product force is also very good, so the price of the vehicle is bound to be less close to the people. So do you think that if Mercedes-Benz sets a starting price of about 250,000 yuan for Smart #1, do you think it is reasonable?