Smart launched this exclusive special model to mark the production start of their new Smart micro hybrid drive. It came with a tridion safety cell done in silver; the body panels were a brilliant crystal white and had stylish nine-spoke alloy wheels.

Why use gas when you are not driving?

 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks from a Smart Micro Hybrid Drive car during her opening tour over the 2007 International Automobile Show IAA in Frankfurt, Germany.

If you go to the German smart car site you can purchase this Smart MHD version for about $19,700.00. The MHD is available as a left-hand-drive version in and all markets, except North America.

The Smart MHD is rated at 71hp and is a particularly economical variant. The car features a stop/go function to lower emissions and increased gas mileage. The new model consumes 8 percent less fuel in the combined cycle, and 19 percent less fuel in urban traffic.

There is also a corresponding reduction in CO2 emissions.

Comparable to the systems previously in place in the Saturn Vue Green Line and some BMW's made for European-specifications, the Smart MHD isn't a complete hybrid.

This means that the Smart can't move on electric power alone. As an alternative, this approach helps reduce fuel expenditure by shutting off the motor.

The technique is straightforward and fully automatic.

The start/stop system is a belt-driven starter generator, replacing both the conventional starter and the alternator. The belt-driven starter generator provides the car's electrical system with power and it also starts the gas engine remarkably quickly in its subsequent function as a starter.

The new sophisticated start/stop function automatically shuts down the engine when fuel would otherwise be unnecessarily consumed. As in stop and go traffic.

The (MHD) micro hybrid drive switches off the engine as soon as the car falls below a speed of 5 mph and you press on the brake pedal.

The motor re-starts as soon as you release the brake pedal. This assures an immediate response and the start/stop function can be neutralized at any time with a switch on the console.