16 November/December 2023 | E-Mobility Engineering culture and people, and how their fastrising automotive industry worked. What I learned still serves me hugely, given smart’s re-emergence as a joint European-Chinese venture.” In 2020, Dr Schweers returned to smart, after the company became a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely Automobile. “The primary activities of my team in Europe include automotive testing, verifying that our cars are suitable for European roads, homologation of the cars, technical compliance and so on. But it also covers a lot of other testing activities in the EU and China. The smart Automobile company With the greater maturity and range of technologies available for EV manufacturing, smart’s approach to automotive development now differs notably to that from Dr Schweers’ 20 years with smart and Mercedes respectively. “The big benefit from the MercedesBenz/Geely joint venture is that we can now design and create vehicles based on large-scale plant manufacturing,” Schweers says. “The two cars we are producing now, the smart #1 and #3, are manufactured in a factory that builds cars for various brands, allowing much greater output volumes than the old smart could manage. “Also unique for us is the MercedesBenz design. The new product generation of smart is designed by Mercedes personnel in Stuttgart, to carry on the design language of the Fortwo in a new shape and aesthetic but one consistent with the idea that these will still be economical, right-sized city cars, starting with the smart #1.” The smart #1 was unveiled in April 2022, and is an all-electric compact SUV with a 66 kWh NMC battery pack and a single, 200 kW central-drive permanent magnet AC motor running through a single-speed transmission. The pack gives the 1.8 t vehicle a range of up to 440 km (270 miles) between charges according to WLTP standards, with 150 kW fast DC charging or 22 kW AC charging. “A second, 115 kW motor can also be integrated for an all-wheel drive version of the car, and both motors are In conversation | Dr Tilo Schweers The smart #3 is the second EV unveiled by the new smart Automobile company, and is designed as a sportier version of the #1 Component packaging, driver UI and interior design in the #1 and #3 are tailored according to driver preferences
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