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The difficult birth of the original Smart car
Mercedes showed it was serious about Swatch car with 1994’s Eco concepts
MERCEDES-BENZ ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES
Smart was brainchild of Swatch CEO Hayek
Smart recently confirmed that it is creating a new miniature two-seater – the unique proposition for which the brand was invented three decades ago – several years after foraying into electric SUVs.
The brand had some difficulty in building a business case for the #2 – but even so, its progress through the pipeline has been a lot smoother than that of the original City Coupé.
Autocar first reported on the project in February 1990, and the next summer its instigator, Nicolas Hayek, did a deal with Volkswagen.