smart began in 1994 as a Mercedes-Benz project for ultra-compact city cars, and for years it was known almost entirely for the two-seat ForTwo. In 2019 the brand was relaunched as smart Automobile Co., Ltd., a 50:50 joint venture between Geely and Mercedes-Benz, and moved its operations to China.
Under the joint venture the division of labour is fixed: Mercedes-Benz leads exterior and interior design from Germany, while Geely supplies the engineering, the SEA electric architecture, and the EHD plug-in-hybrid system. The cars are developed and built in China.
The modern smart line-up has grown well beyond the original city car. It runs from the #1 and #3 compact crossovers up through the larger #5 SUV and the #6 fastback, offered as both battery-electric models and EHD plug-in hybrids for the Chinese market.