Mercedes Benz, the very popular luxury car maker, is planning to launch an ultra compact car named ‘Smart’ for the Indian market. What’s even more exciting is that the Mercedes Benz is likely to introduce both the variants of the ‘Smart’ cars, the four-door model called ‘Smart Forfour’ and the two-door model called ‘Smart Fortwo’. These next generation Smart cars are being developed jointly with Renault and Nissan, the global partners of Mercedes-Benz. The global alliance of these three leading car makers is working on modification of the basic design of the Smart cars and in developing a special compact engine for the same. These changes would definitely help Mercedes-Benz in bringing down the cost of the cars. Most probably, the next gen Smart cars will hit the Indian roads by 2014 for a price ranging from Rs 12-15 lakh.
As the name suggests, the Smart Fortwo will be a two passenger car. Its impressive compact dimension would make it a perfect city car. It will measure just 2,700 mm in length, which means the upcoming Smart car would be around 399 mm shorter than the Tata Nano. On the other hand; the Forfour is the single model from Smart brand that has more than two seats. Hence, it would be an ideal choice for small family car. Along with two seats, the Fortwo model will have a boot space behind the car for 2 smart ebikes and they can be charged in this cargo area during the journey. There will be 2 slits in the cargo space for the front wheels of ebikes.
Look wise, the car will be very attractive and impressive. It will feature a stylish radiator grill along with an exclusive tail lamps cluster. Beneath the front bumper, there will be a wide air dam. Plus, the sporty mesh grille will support the large brand emblem. The rear view of the car would be equally attractive because of the wide bumpers and radically designed tail lamp cluster. The side view will beautifully display the compactness of the car with just one door on each side. The stylish wheel arches and thick alloys will give a striking look to the car. The robust look of the car would be further enhanced by longer wheel base, 2480 mm/plus 613 mm, and the widened track by 50mm on each of the sides.
The seat shells of the Mercedes Smart car will remain open in the middle and they will be enclosed by a soft yellow fabric, giving a very exciting look to the interiors. The entire cockpit would adopt an aerodynamic styling for proper ventilation. Moreover, there will be an instrumental panel oriented to the driver. Another interesting feature of the Smart cars is that these next generation cars will support a smartphone instead of a usual rear-view mirror. The smartphone will be located on the top of the instrumental panel. With the help of a built-in video camera, the driver will be able to see what is happening on the road at the back through the smartphone.
The Mercedes Smart will work on a 55 kW magneto-electric motor that can produce a maximum torque of 130 Nm. With this motor, the car can reach a speed of 60km/h from 0km/h in just 5 seconds. The maximum top speed of the car will be 120km/h. The electric version of the car will take around 8 hours of time to get fully charged on a power source of 240V. Currently, the Smart ForTwo models sold in the international markets are powered by a 3-cylinder 999 cc petrol engine that comes with several power options like 61 bhp, 71 bhp and 84 bhp and this engine claims to give a fuel economy of 19 to 20 kmpl. While the diesel version is powered by a 3-cylinder 799 cc diesel engine that delivers an output power of 54 bhp and fuel economy of around 30.3 kmpl.
There is much speculation about the Smart cars being one of the ten new models that Mercedes-Benz is planning to launch in India over a period of next three years. Mercedes has already made an announcement about its plan to launch the A-Class and B-Class models for Indian market. If the company launches the Smart brand in India by 2014, then definitely it will become a huge hit in the Indian automobile market as a good percentage of cars being sold in India are small cars.
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