US firm claims $1B worth of Smart Car

Tuesday,  June 21, 2005

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A US firm selling an adapted version of the ultra-compact Smart Car said recently that it had ordered more than one billion dollars worth of the quirky mini-cars from DaimlerChrysler.

California-based Zero Air Pollution (ZAP) said requests were flooding in as the peculiarly European car makes its entrance onto the American market, long accustomed to large vehicles but now smarting from the fast-rising price of petrol.

“ZAP ... has delivered a purchase order for a total of one billion dollars worth of Smart Cars to manufacturer smart GmbH (a DaimlerChrysler unit) and is awaiting a response to the order,” the company said.

“ZAP reported that it had received more than one billion dollars in orders from US dealers for Americanized versions of the Smart Car micro-coupe,” the company added.

But the firm stressed it was waiting to see if the German-based firm will be able to fulfill the order and that ZAP had not agreed to accept all the orders for the cars.

The company, which adapts the Smart Car to meet US federal and state safety and emissions standards, however said it had received offers from distributors to supply tens of thousands of the mini-cars to US clients.

“Given the overwhelming demand we have received from US consumers for the Smart Car, we are very pleased to have this early source of the vehicles,” said ZAP chief executive Steve Schneider said in a statement.
The car was unveiled in the United States last week as ZAP prepares the sports utility vehicle-dominated market for the advent of micro cars.

Geoff Day, spokesman for the Mercedes USA division of DaimlerChrysler, said he had no information about the order, which would have been sent to the automaker’s German headquarters.

But he said it was not unusual for importers to buy and customise certain vehicles not generally available in the US market.

Day said the company hopes to bring the car to the US market at some point but has no timetable.

“Our principal concern is that customers get the right ownership experience, we want full service support and manufacturer backing, will occur when we officially start selling the car in the US,” Day said.

Day said that in the meantime, the exposure for the car was positive for the automaker.

“It doesn’t take us by surprise,” Day said of the effort by ZAP to sell the mini-car.

“At the moment we are concentrating on the success” of the Smart models. “ZAP has obviously found there is demand.”

Despite the interest from the US, DaimlerChrysler is set to slash a third of the jobs at its Smart division, which has suffered losses totaling 3.5 billion euros (4.5 billion dollars) since its launch in 1998.

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