Smartcarpedia.org » smart car concept

Na Na Na Na Na BATSMART!

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:18:22 +0000

What happens when The Batmobile and a Smart fortwo make sweet love? You get The BatSmart.

Designed/created by George Barris himself, the man who gave us a campy, 1960′s Batmobil for The Dark Knight, features faux turbine and rocket launchers along with its full custom body kit – including the requisite rear bat fins, pointy nose and Heath Ledger version of Joker spray painted on its tip..

The vehicle was featured at last year’s SEMA Auto Show, and just went for $16,100 on eBay Motors. More pictures for you Batman enthusiasts below.

Smart Car ForTwo+2

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:36:31 +0000

The tiny and successful Smart ForTwo may be getting a little bigger. Daimler is in the works designing a four-door Smart Car which can carry four people comfortably. It is tentatively being dubbed Smart ForTwo+2.

Smart ForTwo+2

Up until now, the major limitation of the minuscule city car has been its inability to carry an extra body or two. All that could change by 2012, according to Auto Express. The magazine released a rendering of a proposed Smart ForTwo+2. The car would have rear “suicide” doors, making access into the tiny rear a little easier. This will make the car a bit more competitive with base-level city cars like the Chevy Spark and Mazda2, and more premium vehicles, like Audi’s A1 Coupe.

Smart’s addition would likely stay as a rear-wheel-drive, keeping the engine below the floor of the trunk. The added length for the backseat comes from an elongated wheelbase. We are hoping the car will be available in several engine options, including hybrid drive and full electric mode.

Whatever Happened to Smart’s Crosstown Hybrid?

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:36:10 +0000

Back in 2005, SMART was working on what they called the Crosstown – a Hybrid car that was compact, sporty and weaved in and out of NYC traffic with pizazz. But since the creation and popularization of Smart Fortwo, the Crosstown and Smart hybrids in general seem to have taken a back seat, no pun intended.

According to Treehugger’s blog: Smart brand makes some of the most recognizable cars on the road and despite their financial woes, it seems that they intend to keep on making more. One of their new concept models is the Smart Crosstown; it looks a bit like the love child of a Jeep and a Smart Fortwo, though it certainly has more Smart genes than Jeep ones. The most interesting aspect of the Smart Crosstown is the gasoline-electric hybrid drive train. “The crosstown smart car prototype combines an electric motor (with an output of up to 23 kW) with the 45 kW (61 hp) gasoline engine from the smart fortwo. The result is a 15% reduction in fuel consumption to 4.3 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers (55 mpg US). The smart crosstown furthermore offers approximately 10% better acceleration”.

With specs like those it’s hard to believe we’re not seeing more Crosstowns on the road today. Most likely the Fortwo is a much cheaper automobile for the company to build. Without the hybrid drive train cost would come down several thousands of dollars. Plus, once Fortwo started making an impact on roads and dealerships in North America all focus was shifted to that make. Still, with a need for tiny vehicles with an edge we hope to one day see the Crosstown Hybrid at SMART dealers world wide.