Ever wondered how Mercedes' sister company manages to squeeze an engine, gearbox and two passengers into a car roughly the size of a shopping trolley? We did, that's why we watched this video that shows haw the 2015 smart fortwo is put together with bated breath and are now sharing its secrets with you guys.
The first thing we learned is that even though the fortwo is a unibody car, it almost looks like the chassis and body are built separately and joined. Rather than bolt each suspension part separately, Hambach employees join all the powertrain goodies together – front suspension, followed by a flat fuel tank in the middle and the rear engine, gearbox and suspension unit.
About 1.6 million fortwo cars have been assembled so far at the factory. Following a 200 million euro development program, the all-new model is now rolling off the line and is expected to be the most technologically advanced one yet.
Dr. Annette Winkler, head of smart: "The history of smart is inseparably linked to our Hambach site. From production of the very first vehicle up to the all-new smart fortwo: our team here has made a very significant contribution to put our success story on the road by the millions. And now, as a new era begins with the new smart generation, smartville is one of the key success factors of our brand."
From the beginning...
It was roughly 20 years ago that the Management and the Supervisory Board of the former company Daimler-Benz AG decided to make smart city cars. Currently, around 800 men and woman are directly employed at the factory which was recently expanded by a further 33,000 square meters . From Hambach, cars are exported to 46 different markets across the globe, Germany, Itally and China being the three largest. As for the new fortwo itself, this will be available in European dealerships starting November 22, 2014.
"The success story here in Hambach cannot be imagined without the contributions of our highly skilled and motivated team", says plant manager Betker. The retention rate is high – almost half of the workforce has been on board from the outset. Still, the average age is low, currently standing at 40 years. "smartville has always been a big cooperation project between Germany and France as well", explains Betker. "Our employees in the engineering departments are mostly trilingual: German, French, and English. Of course this also contributes to our success in the daily business."
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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