I'm off!

With the last combustion Smart to the Mercedes Museum

Finally, over and over: Smart finally examines the burners and in the future relies solely on electric drives. For the very last petrol engine, the Swabians have come up with something - he drives straight from the factory to the museum.

There is a strange silence over the factory premises and even the little house between the two gates at the main gate is deserted. Because here in Hambach, where many thousands of smart cars have been built recently, things have been a bit more relaxed since this autumn. With the facelift to IAA in September Daimler has retired the last gasoline engine at Bonsai-Benz and Smart completely switched to electric drive as the first halfway classic car brand. Firstly, the Smart EDs are quieter, and secondly, at least so far, they are being produced in much smaller quantities. No wonder then that Hambach has just taken out a gear, it is quiet in the factory and you have to look for a gatekeeper, if you want to get down from the factory.

But now the man in the blue uniform has to work again - for a very special job. With a proud, almost defiant Brabblen out of his Brabus exhaust, a black and yellow Smart Convertible rolls towards the gate and pushes outside. And that is not just any smart. But thick with a "#21" labeled, it is the last copy of the Final Collectors Edition, with the smart says goodbye to gasoline. Designed by the Berlin artist and designer Konstantin Grcic, it is on the way to where art objects belong - in the museum.

The watchmobile

But his place in the Mercedes Museum owes that Swabian style car not only its speckled paint, but also its historical significance. Although the bonsai-Benz was always a problem child for the accountants and probably burned more money than any other Mercedes model. But in the development of the car, the tiny marked a similar milestone as the Mini. Because the Smart was the first model with which the PS industry has responded to the urbanization of the world and the traffic collapse in the megacities. "The car of the future must question existing ideas and inspire them with radical and pioneering technology ideas," Mercedes-Benz studio engineer and visionary Johann Tomforde put 1972 in a nutshell as he outlined the first ideas on what 25 years later should be smart. And when the Swiss watch pope Nikolas Hayek brought his ideas from the Swatch car, an answer to the steadily growing cities and the threat of traffic collapse was evidently found: a two-seater of 2,69 meters unrivaled at the time and with only three engines Cylinders, over which the Mercedes engineers should have laughed loudly. But that was just a second choice anyway: Hayek had already come up with the electric drive and even if it took almost ten years and it was initially only 100 cars for London, the Smart 2007 was after all the first electric production car from Europe.

After Daimler has now phased out the burners, the Swabians are already planning the next step: Together with major shareholder Geely they want to develop the next generation of Smart around the battery drive in China and manufacture from there for the whole world and finally an electric To offer small cars at a competitive price.

Surf in a traffic jam

All of this has in mind, while one of the gatekeepers who rushed in after a little search opens the barrier with a sad look and a friendly greeting and releases the last combustion engine Smart on his farewell trip. This leads first through the village of Hambach itself, which has blossomed with the factory and therefore says goodbye to the yellow nerd with bright sunshine, then over a few provincial streets and then onto the motorway. Although made for the city, the Smart is doing bravely there too and is defiantly growling against all sentimentality. What have we been annoyed about in the last few years about the rattling three-cylinder and above all about the gearbox, which made us nod every shift. Out, over and forget. Firstly, the drive has become better and better over the years and at least since the last generation change, it has been in no way inferior to other small cars such as a VW Up or a Fiat 500. And secondly, we will soon miss such lively mini-engines when they have been completely sacrificed on the altar of the CO2 limit values ​​and climate protection.

Until then, however, we enjoy it again and let the 0,9-liter a bit freewheel. Thank the Brabus tuning, he makes a lot of fun - especially when it goes over land to an old border crossing over the Rhine and then enforces a traffic jam at Pforzheim once again an involuntary landing party. That then the rush hour has long since begun, as the Smart dives into the Stuttgart boiler, fits into the picture somehow. Because for just this scenario, the little thing has been thought, and surfs so easily through the heavy traffic, that even the traffic jam can not spoil the mood. Certainly not, even if the autumn sun laughs through the open top.

Only at the bottom of the Neckar does the mood sink again and the closer the museum moves, the farther the corners of the mouth go down. Because not only does the end of the journey, but also the end approach an era and at least for Smart Otto is soon just a first name and cylinder a literally old hat.

Not all are sad, one radiates!

The driver may be sad, but the Visitor Service man, as he holds the Bonsai-Benz door and the Knutschkugel right in the middle of the collection - after all, he has at least temporarily a popular newcomer and hardly has the car turned off bend even the first curious guests in the convertible.

Three hours' drive further to the west, the grief has long since given way to the face of the gatekeeper in Hambach. First of all, the smart will continue to be powered by electric drive for some time until the joint venture with Geely gets under way in China. And secondly, the preparations for the production of the Mercedes EQ A, which should ensure the necessary capacity utilization of the factory, have long been running. Even if he will be back in his little house more often in the future, the man has a good laugh.