7:00 am, September 17, 2025
Smart’s boss said that the firm went through ‘six bumpy years’ as it perfected the relationship between joint venture partners Mercedes and Geely.
Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, Smart’s CEO Dirk Adelmann said that it was ‘working style but also working culture’ which differed between the German and Chinese automotive giants, but added that the brand is now ‘benefitting heavily’ from the partnership.
‘In the beginning, when we were classical German or European, direct feedback to our colleagues in China – particularly on the engineering side – was always seen as an attack on them, not as feedback from a customer,’ he explained.
‘I think we matured a lot. Colleagues in China are more used to my style of communication, sure, and I also learned a lot in terms of basically, “don’t crash the house front door and just storm in”.
‘I think also as part of Mercedes-Benz and Geely in Smart, we also bring the shareholders a bit closer to each other, because all of the top shots from Mercedes and Geely are in our supervisory board, so they have to align on brand, strategy etc.’
Smart has already put a broad range of electric vehicles in place, with the #1, #3 and #5 all on-sale in the UK.
A recent £1,500 discount was announced by Smart, too, in the wake of the government’s electric car grant.
It will also be reviving the original ForTwo city car, which will return as the electric #2 built on a bespoke platform not shared with any other brands within the Geely or Mercedes groups.
‘#2, to be quite honest, is a Smart-only project,’ Adelmann added.
When asked if the brand would be looking for a partner to help broaden the scale of the #2, Adelmann said: ‘We are open.
‘I think the car is going to be interesting to a lot of people.’
