On a cool summer day 25 years ago, at the Hambach factory in France, then-German Chancellor Kohl and French Chancellor Jacques Chirac joined forces to unveil a new manufacturing base belonging to a new brand that had just been born, which later became the brand's exclusive factory, producing more than 2.2 million individual cars that swept the world and sold them around the world.
This brand is Smart, that personalized car was called smart city coupe at the beginning of its birth, and later renamed smart fortwo, in the micro-electric car has not been as hot as the current time, it and the Volkswagen Beetle, MINI, Fiat 500 these models, supported the global personalized car market a piece of the sky.
The Smart family has lasted for three generations, from the beginning of its birth to solve the growing problem of urban congestion, and mercedes-Benz designers gave it a cute and playful appearance, and at that time, a wave of personalized and fashionable cars blew up in the cities of developed countries. After the second generation of Smart Fortwo entered China in 2009, it also set off a wave of little sister car driving, becoming synonymous with exquisite urban female cars, when the rapidly developing Chinese market directly jumped to become the third largest market in smart world.
Today, 25 years later, the market for micro-fuel vehicles is gradually dominated by electric vehicles, and Smart's exclusive Hambach factory in France, which once produced more than two million Smart models, has also been sold by Daimler. Taking over the baton from the Hambach plant in France is the Geely plant in Xi'an, China.
The wheels of history have run over Geely and Daimler and sent their transformed electrified Smart brands to China in the new century. Along with it, there is also a new Smart model Genie #1, which costs 190,000-230,000 yuan.
As the first model of the Smart brand created by Daimler and Geely Holdings, The Smart Genie #1 has received a lot of attention, and the origin of this car is very interesting, it is fundamentally different from the joint venture models we have seen in the past. Its exterior design is led by Mercedes-Benz, and the engineering research and development and production are responsible for Geely, which will be produced in the Xi'an factory in the future and sold worldwide. To use less accurate words to describe, it is that the face is taken care of by Mercedes-Benz, and the inside is handled by Geely. Will such a Smart still have the essence and brilliance of the past?
Purely from the design point of view, the Smart Genie #1 feels far from the smart family of the past, for the simple reason that it is too big. The new car is positioned as a small SUV, and the small flexibility we saw on the Smart in the past has been discounted on it, and now it is as blessed as the MINI COUNTRYMAN.
If it is still a small design that continues smart's classic, then it should look like this.
(Image from the Internet)
Doesn't it feel a lot clearer?
However, the design of the new car is still remarkable. The triangular headlights on both sides of the front face are connected by a through-type light strip, the recognition is quite high, and below is an air intake grille that is not small in the electric car, and there are also air intakes on both sides, if you can retain the smiley face design of the second generation Smart Fortwo, personal feeling will be more in line with its positioning.
Although the body has become much larger, the Smart Genie #1 has nothing to do with sophistication and fashion, with frameless doors, concealed door handles, suspended roofs, and optional two-tone bodies available.
Even knowing that Chinese consumers have a unique love for Mercedes-Benz, this Smart Genie #1 even has a "STYLED BY Benz" nameplate embedded in the B-pillar to remind everyone that "the design of this car is from mercedes-benz hands". But to be honest, today's Mercedes-Benz design, there is really no need to engrave this kind of self-insulting words on the car. It may be better to hang a Mercedes-Benz trident star without writing those two English words.
The design of the rear of the new car is to directly prove that this car is from the hands of Mercedes-Benz designers, because this through-type LED taillights are very similar to the taillights of Mercedes-Benz's EQ series models, and the designer is here in the car butt, may be in a hurry to go home to eat, directly holding the tail of the Mercedes-Benz EQ model to change a few times and submit.
As a high-end pure electric model, the interior of Smart Genie #1 is also full of "Ben taste", the oval air outlet, the suspension large screen, the central control armrest box area can see the shadow of Mercedes-Benz, but the overall look of this interior design technology and luxurious atmosphere is still in place.
Since it is no longer a small and fine route, then the space of Smart Genie #1 has become a very important selling point, the length, width and height of this car are 4290/1910/1698mm, the wheelbase is 2750mm, thanks to the pure electric platform, its rear space looks impressive, from the presentation video of the conference, the rear leg and head space can be comparable to the current mainstream domestic pure electric small SUVs such as Dolphin, AION Y, and the space performance can be expected.
In the past, the models of the Smart family were all taking care of the city, so the power would not be very aggressive, and a 1.0L 71Ps engine could make the sisters play with it. On Smart Genie #1, the rear-mounted rear-drive form was retained, with the rear-mounted motor bringing 272Ps of horsepower and the 100-kilometer acceleration time to 6.7 seconds. The top speed has also increased from 150km/h on the Smart forfour to 180km/h, and the past fuel Smart is certainly not the same as it in terms of power performance.
In terms of endurance, Smart Genie #1 did not give any surprises, 66kWh ternary lithium battery, bringing 535km and 560km (CLTC cruising standard) range, the actual mileage estimation should be between 350-500km, belonging to the current mainstream electric vehicle level.
The most discussed is about the price of Smart Genie #1, the current official announcement of the pre-sale price of the two models, respectively, 190,000 and 230,000 yuan, in fact, the difference in configuration between the two models is mainly the difference in hardware equipment, such as the number of ultrasonic radar, the number of millimeter wave radar, the number of speakers and the size of the hub, the rest like basic driving assistance functions, technology configuration are not too much difference, low-end models are not impossible to buy.
But despite this, the Smart Genie #1 is still more expensive than the models of the same class, such as the well-sold Euler Cat (120,000-160,000), the Dolphin (100,000-130,000), and the GAC Aion AION Y (13-190,000). For the same price, you can buy a large circle and experience the Volkswagen ID.4.
For 200,000 for Smart Genie #1, I can think of more things to get, and only the brand is left. But today, is the Smart brand still worth the price?