Daimler brings electric smart cars under new Mercedes-Benz EQ family, adds faster charging

Daimler is getting ready to launch its latest electric vehicle effort under its new Mercedes-Benz ‘EQ’ brand.

We thought that the all-electric ‘EQC’ SUV would be the first vehicle under the new brand, but with the unveiling of the new electric smart cars, the German automaker announced today that these vehicles are now ‘smart EQ’ cars.

Last year, Daimler made the smart car brand all-electric in North America and lost 2/3 of US dealerships in the process.

But they seem to still be pushing for the electrification of the brand.

CEO of smart Dr. Annette Winkler made on the announcement:

“smart is electric, innovative, intelligent and totally unique, or in three words each: ‘smart EQ fortwo’ and ‘smart EQ forfour’. With the smart EQ fortwo/forfour, we are putting the first products from the Mercedes-Benz Cars EQ family on urban roads and showing how much fun electric mobility can be.”

With the introduction of the electric vehicles in the new EQ brand, Daimler is unveiling a new ‘nightsky’ special edition of the fortwo and forfour as well as a few new features for the electric smart car lineup.

Here’s the new ‘nightsky’ special edition:

The biggest feature added to the new ‘smart EQ fortwo’ and ‘smart EQ forfour’ is a new 22 kW onboard charger:

“From May 2018, a particularly powerful 22 kW fast charger will be available as an option in Europe. This makes it possible for the smart fortwo (combined power consumption of 22 kW on-board charger with fast charging function.”

It can be confusing since they are calling it a “fast charger” with “fast charging function”, but it’s not ‘DC fast-charging’ – just a more powerful onboard charger for level 2 charging.

Daimler also announced a new ‘smart EQ control’ mobile app to access a few feature of the smart EQ electric cars:

• CONNECT offers the functions of an on-board computer. The user can call up their vehicle’s current status at any time by smartphone. Displayed information includes charge level, range and whether the tyre pressure is correct, for example.
• CONTROL enables functions such as pre-entry climate control to be operated conveniently from anywhere via the app. Additional remote functions are planned.
• COMFORT uses push notifications to inform smart drivers if, for example, the state of charge of the battery is very low. The app’s scope of functions also includes a link to the innovative smart “ready to” services.

The app will be available in “mid-2018”, according to the automaker.

‘Smart EQ control’ is also linked to Daimler’s new ‘ready-to-share’ private car-sharing function. When buying the ‘ready-to-share’ package, which includes things that can facilitate car sharing, like “keyless entry” function, owners can easily share the vehicle through Daimler’s app.