Although the smart brand was not born for a long time, it has won a wave of dividends in the global mini car market by symbolizing the positioning of refinement, art and light luxury. Unfortunately, in the 24 years since Smart was founded, it has not given a positive financial report to the Daimler Group. Smart, which has been in a state of large losses for a long time, has gradually become the "chicken rib" of the group.
The product of Mercedes-Benz's partnership with Swiss watch giant Swatch takes its name from the combination of Swatch-Mercedes-ART. In the mouths of domestic consumers, everyone usually discusses it with a ridiculous tone, or treats smart as an expensive toy for the rich. The impractical "figure" coupled with the price of about 150,000 yuan makes it impossible for ordinary consumers to include it in the family car alternative list.
However, when Geely bought a 9.69% stake in Daimler two years ago and became its largest shareholder, the identity of the brand changed completely.
Reborn and reborn
In 2019, Geely Automobile and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand jointly invested 2.7 billion yuan to establish Zhimada Automobile Co., Ltd. in Hangzhou, China in a 50:50 joint venture. As the embodiment of smart, Smart Motor starts everything from scratch.
Soon, two years later, at the Munich Motor Show, the new smart brand was officially unveiled and the first concept car, Genie #1, was released. This time, electrification, intelligence, and high-end have become the new theme of the Smart brand. Unlike most of the existing joint ventures in China such as SAIC Volkswagen and Beijing Benz, Geely's function in the smart brand is no longer simple factory building, production, marketing and sales, but deep participation and even leading new product research and development.
On April 7, 2022, the smart genie #1 mass production version was officially released worldwide. This new small pure electric SUV, designed by Mercedes-Benz's global design team, is based on the Geely Haohan SEA architecture, that is, Geely is responsible for engineering research and development, and is the same origin as the Krypton 001 that we are familiar with.
The name is still a familiar name, but the appearance of this smart genie #1 is far from the original smart, and it has jumped from the original mini car to a standard small SUV. Although the length of the car is only 4270mm, the wheelbase reaches 2750mm, what is this concept? The wheelbase of this car has reached the same level as that of the "net red" tank 300, even exceeding the wheelbase of most compact models. This long wheelbase, short body features, but also a major feature of the current pure electric platform model, the advantage is that there is no need to worry about the seating space of passengers in the smart car.
With a large space, there is a stage for engineers to play. Mercedes-Benz Chief Design Officer Wagner said, "The new Smart Genie #1 retains smart's signature style, making its design more mature, cool and charming. Indeed, smart genie #1, born out of the electric age, easily removes mechanical buttons from the car and is replaced by a huge 12.8-inch touchscreen. In addition, the central control area seems to be unable to see other physical buttons, and the materials and shapes are also very exquisite. As a model with half Mercedes-Benz blood, the last thing to worry about is the interior.
As for the rear space, it can even be described as exaggerated. At the German press conference, the official claim was that the Smart Genie #1 had a ride space comparable to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Although we are not yet able to verify it for ourselves, it is quite possible that the "four-wheeled and four-corner" characteristics of electric vehicles will surpass a longitudinal rear-drive fuel vehicle. Crucially, who would have thought that smart back space would be a big selling point?
Note that the Smart Genie #1 is an A0-class SUV and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a C-class sedan, which is three levels apart! Is It too much for Mercedes-Benz to say this?
As for the styling, as the first model created by the new smart brand, it is difficult to find the shadow of the previous smart model from the body of the smart genie #1 concept car. The new design style is more in line with the positioning of the tram's future sense of technology, forget about the smart to see smart genie #1, although not stunning, but still a little distinctive. To be sure, Smart Genie #1 departs from the positioning of the once urban personality micro-car and assumes the needs of a wider range of mass consumers.
The small car market in which Smart is located was initially an exploratory attempt by the Mercedes-Benz brand. In the mainstream luxury car market is becoming increasingly popular and the smart brand has been in a state of loss, the smart that did not use the Mercedes-Benz logo at the beginning is already a chicken rib for the Mercedes-Benz brand. Geely's timely investment in the shares, in addition to making its shareholder relationship with Daimler more harmonious, but also allows it to expand the overseas small boutique electric vehicle market at a lower cost, paving the way for it to go to Europe.
Join forces and embrace the mainstream
In fact, the original smart was designed and released to make a hybrid product, but in the end it was limited by Mercedes-Benz's decision, and the mass production version was still equipped with a fuel engine. Nowadays, the cooperation with Geely Automobile to produce electric smarts is also a return to the original intention.
After talking about the styling design, the power system is where Geely Group shows its fists and feet. Born from the vast SEA architecture of smart genie #1, will be equipped with a maximum horsepower of 272Ps, maximum torque of 343N·m rear motor, 0-100km/h acceleration of 6.7 seconds, the maximum speed of 180km/h, ternary lithium battery capacity of 66kWh, CLTC cruising range of 560km, the future may also have dual-motor four-wheel drive version.
If you look at the known parameters, it is 102Ps larger than the 170Ps front motor on the mainstream joint venture brand Volkswagen ID.3, with an endurance of about 100 kilometers, and the battery capacity is less than 10kWh larger than the ID.3's 57.3kWh, such performance parameters are still quite competitive today.
Of course, the three-electric system is only part of the vast SEA architecture, and the rest, including infotainment systems and driver assistance systems, will be qualitatively improved. The level of intelligence that has always been less powerful for joint venture/import brands will also be improved on Smart Genie #1.
From the product point of view, smart genie #1 has the shape of pleasing the times, not losing the intelligent experience of new forces, and the final suspense is only the price. To be honest, the author is not very optimistic, with the Mercedes-Benz brand tone and the historical development of the smart brand, the price of smart genie #1 will not be low. However, this will face "encirclement and suppression" from independent brands and joint venture brands, including Tesla, BYD, Xiaopeng, Volkswagen ID. series, etc.
But I also hope that Mercedes-Benz can put down its body in this product and no longer repeat the previous high pricing strategy of Denza, which led to the failure of the product. It is only hoped that the price of Smart Genie #1 will not be much higher than that of Volkswagen ID.3, which is bound to attract some buyers who pursue quality and make them win by quantity. Otherwise, the car is still an expensive toy for the rich.
Master observation
Some people may say that smart has become so big that it has lost its original small to the extreme, and thus disappeared from everyone. But this is actually a smart choice, from the current point of view, China is the best environment for the development of smart electric vehicles in the world, and seeking cooperation from Geely Group is also the fastest smart move for Mercedes-Benz to seize the Chinese market. After all, next year, the beam brands of Great Wall Motors and BMW Motors will also begin to exert their strength, and pure electric MINI models will enter the market. At that time, we will see smart and MINI compete for a new market with a pure electric posture.