ELECTRIC SMART is coming

[jwight]

Originally Posted by Red_fortwo

Considering their general opinion of smarts (or other cars with less than 400hp), this is practically a glowing review! Unfortunately, my commute is 25 miles each direction, 75% highway. I'd love to do it in an electric Smart, but I consider a practical range for an electric vehicle to be 50% of what the mfr claims because the mfr almost always is using ideal conditions (new, fully-charged battery running a steady-state course over flat ground). The "real world" is much different from "ideal conditions."

Worst case scenario (from another thread): night, hot, rain, caught in a giant traffic jam that won't move for who knows how long. Shut down lights, A/C (if it even cools on the ed), turn off wipers and hope the car moves off when the traffic finally starts going.

[74AMX304V8]

there are two different technologies here...the Micro Hybrid Drive (which is a misnomer and smart should stop using it) which shuts the engine down at slowing speeds ,less than 8mph, and while being stopped, and will rapidly restart the engine upon taking the foot off the brake. It replaces the alternator and conventional starter with a combo generator/starter motor. It uses a belt from that unit to spin the engine alive instead of a geared flywheel and separate starter motor. It is supposed to save 8-11% on fuel. The other technology is an all electric drive vehicle that smart has been playin with since 2006. It has an electric motor instead of the i.c. engine they normally have. The first units had sodium nickel/chloride battery modules. Now they are testing lithium ion battery modules. They will probably swith to the new nano titanide/lithium technology before it is released for sale.