History

In the last weeks we have learned how Nicolas Hayek failed with his swatch car at Volkswagen and that Daimler Benz has been working with Professor Johann Tomforde on a similar project since the 1970s.

The following article is about how the two joint their forces between 1992 and 1998 to make the dream of an electric city car a reality. After the swatch group and Daimler Benz had found each other, it was time to turn the projects of the two companies into a joint car.

Last week we learned that Nicolas Hayek failed with the swatch car at Volkswagen. After that his path would lead him to Daimler Benz. A microcar project was already underway there, which fitted perfectly with Mr. Hayek's ideas.

But how did it come about and what did the first drawings from 1969 look like?

The man behind the article is Professor Johann Tomforde. In this article you can find out how his diploma thesis became the smart fortwo 30 years later.

It was a long way before smart delivered the first production car in 1998. We all know the story of how Mr. Hayek came from swatch and wanted to build the infamous swatch car. A small, fully electric two-seater whose name the smart fortwo still bears in common parlance today.

But how was it really?

Over the last 5 years I have collected everything possible, written together and thought about it. This has now become the trilogy of the smarts story. The first part is about how Hayek's swatch car failed at VW. In the next two weeks I will then go into how it went on after that.

Everyone is talking about the upcoming all-electric smart formore, which will be presented at the IAA in Munich. It will be built together with Geely and is intended to realign the brand. In the future, they don't just want to build small cars. They also want to build main cars and start that with an SUV.

But the idea for a smart SUV is almost as old as the brand itself. Smart was at the topic as early as 2004 and developed the smart formore at full speed. During my research on the subject,…