Smart Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture established by Mercedes-Benz AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2019 and aimed at producing Smart-badged cars in China to be marketed globally.

Originally, the marque was known for producing microcars and subcompacts, primarily the Fortwo and Forfour, at Smartville in Hambach, Moselle, France and additionally at Renault's Revoz plant (Novo Mesto, Slovenia).

He believed that the automotive industry had ignored a sector of potential customers who wanted a small and stylish compact city car.

[10] Hayek had suspected that Piëch would seek to end the agreement with SMH upon his ascendancy to the CEO position; therefore, he discreetly began approaching other car companies with the Swatchmobile project.

Rebuffed by BMW, Fiat, General Motors and Renault, he finally reached an informal agreement with Daimler-Benz AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars.

[11] A deal was announced on 4 March 1994 at a press conference at Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart, that the companies would join forces in founding Micro Compact Car AG (MCC).

The company consisted of two subsidiaries: MCC GmbH based in Renningen (a suburb of Stuttgart), which would design the car, and the then-unnamed manufacturing plant.

[12] The press conference also featured the debut of two concept cars: the "eco-sprinter" and "eco-speedster", styled by Mercedes-Benz's design studio in California.

In 1995, Tomforde devised a modular system of assembly for the car, insisting that suppliers design and assemble and even install their own modules onto the final car at the new plant, using their own employees and thus reducing the cost overhead for the parent companies and divesting MCC of the financial and legal liabilities for those parts.

It also provided a fiscal framework whereby MCC could share the development costs with the suppliers, rather than having to fund the entire project themselves.

[24] The assembly plant opened on 27 October 1997, with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by then-French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

[25] Introduction of the new Smart City-Coupé was planned for March 1998; however, dynamic instability of the prototypes prompted Daimler-Benz to announce postponing the launch until October 1998.

[26] Fritz lowered the centre of gravity, widened the track, stiffened the suspension, changed the steering, and added ballast weight to the front of the car in order to increase its stability in emergency avoidance manoeuvres (notably the Swedish "moose test").

[27] The car launched successfully in nine European countries in October 1998, but the final design did not fulfill Hayek's expectations.

A planned SUV called Formore was terminated as the assembly plant in Brazil was being fitted with machines, and production of the Roadster was discontinued.

In 2006, after dwindling sales and heavy financial losses, Smart GmbH was liquidated and its operations were absorbed by DaimlerChrysler directly.

The concept vehicle is built on Geely's SEA platform and features design details of existing Smart models, including a panoramic glass roof, frameless suicide-style rear doors, and a large 12.8-inch (33 cm) touchscreen infotainment system.

There were also plans to introduce the French made cross-over based on the body of the ForFour and the AWD hardware of the Mercedes C-class with the name of Formore but industrialization of this was cancelled at the 11th hour (even as tooling was being installed in the assembly plant) due to unfavourable exchange rate swings and spending cutbacks driven by losses elsewhere within Smart.

The Smart ED will then serve as a pilot project to prove the effectivity of zero-emission car usage that can utilize alternative sources of energy.

The 2008-2011 (North America) Smart Fortwo Type 451 was totally redesigned, with a 70-horsepower (71 PS; 52 kW) naturally aspirated Mitsubishi-sourced gasoline engine of 999 cc (61.0 cu in) for North America, up from the 799 cc (48.8 cu in) cdi diesel, with the attendant loss of fuel economy.

These vehicles are sent to the Brabus factory in Bottrop, Germany, where the standard ex-works cars are stripped to the shell and repainted/retrimmed to suit individual customers' tastes.

Aside from the special paint, all had every Brabus part fitted to the body and interior, and the seats, door panels and dashboards were trimmed in black Nappa leather and Alcantara.

Three of these cars are in British Columbia and #1-of-1, the Concept vehicle used at Canadian International Auto Shows (a red cabrio with silver alloys), is now in London, Ontario.

The other ten were all ordered by Mercedes-Benz Canada as the special "edit10n" of the Canadian Brabus 451 (with only 70 HP), painted in metallic dark grey with an orange Nappe leather interior.

Smarts were imported into the United States by "The Defiance Company LLC", modified by G&K Automotive Conversion in Santa Ana, California, and distributed and sold by independent dealerships which were not affiliated with Mercedes.

In its April 2008 issue, Men's Vogue raised the question, "in a nation where your supersized car is your castle, is the Smart too mini for a man?".

[49] On 1 July 2011 Mercedes-Benz USA took over the distribution, sales and marketing of the Smart brand from Penske Automotive Group.

[53] Smart exited the US market after the 2019 model year due to slow sales and the high cost of homologating the Fortwo for the US.

[63] It also received "Good" ratings for front and side crash protection in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) tests.

[64] However, in an April 2009 40-mile-per-hour (64 km/h) frontal offset crash test between a Fortwo and a Mercedes C-Class, "the Smart went air-borne and turned around 450 degrees" causing "extensive intrusion into the space around the dummy from head to feet".