Smart car sales have been witnessing the downward trend for quite sometime now. In an attempt to revive the brand and push the sales, parent company Mercedes Benz has declared that they will be launching a 5 door Toyota Yaris size hatch, in the United States by the end of 2011. This hatch is being developed by Nissan as a part of the strategic cooperation between Daimler AG & the Renault-Nissan Group.
The company announced that this US specific B segment car will be based on a vehicle from the Nissan stable and reveled sketches of the same. What is clearly evident from these sketches is that this new Smart car is essentially the Nissan Micra.
Roger Penske, Chairman of the Penske Automotive Group, the brand's exclusive distributor in the States -
We are faced with continuing customer demand for a smart car with more seating capacity. Sales and service of the five seater will be carried out exclusively by our approximately 75 smart dealerships in the United States. Together with Nissan, we will bring to market a fully equipped small car for our customers and dealers in the USA. It will fit in well with the smart brand
The entire structure of the car looks very much like the Micra, with the headlamps and the tail lamps being given a ‘smart’ car look. The drawings look deceiving with the body of the car elongated and squashed down to look a bit different from the Micra.
