Mercedes-Benz to pull Smart cars from Canada, U.S. market
Canadian Plastics
Automotive Canadian PlasticsJust 345 Smart cars were sold in Canada in 2018 after the car went fully electric.
With sales falling, German automaker Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz business has announced that it will discontinue sales of its full-electric Smart brand in Canada and the U.S. at the end of the current model year.
Once touted as the next big thing in urban mobility, Canadian sales of Smart vehicles fell 6.3 per cent to just 345 units in 2018 after the car went fully electric. U.S. Smart sales in 2018 were 1,276, a drop of 58 per cent.
Daimler ended sales of gasoline-fuelled Smart cars in 2017.
The Smart brand’s electric cars offered 93 kms of driving range per charge. In contrast, competing models such as the “mid-range” Tesla Model 3 offered an estimated range of 523 kms per charge.
In its statement, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand cited “a number of factors” for the decision to end Smart’s run in Canada and the U.S., including a declining micro-car market in the two countries, combined with the costs required to bring the European-designed Smart in line with North American regulations.
Mercedes dealers will still offer parts and repairs for Smart cars, the company said.
Daimler has said it will enter into a joint venture with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to build a new generation of Smart models in a purpose-built electric-car factory in China with global sales to begin in 2022.
