Launch of electric Smart delayed by three months

Dec 28, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Stuttgart - The Daimler subsidiary Smart has delayed the launch of the E-Smart by three months from June to September next year because a supplier of the battery manufacturer Li-Tec has encountered delivery problems, a company spokeswoman has confirmed.

There was no problem with the production of the batteries and the later delivery to customers was being taken into account to maintain quality, the spokeswoman said, confirming a report in Automotive News Europe.

The electric-powered E-Smart has a range of more than 140 kilometres and a top speed of 120 km/h. Production is set to start in the Smart factory in Hambach, France. The first E-Smart test fleet took to the road in 2007 with another 2,000 units of the second generation model delivered to selected customers in 2009.

In another development Opel stopped the European delivery of the Ampera, the sister car of the Chevrolet Volt. This came after unexplained fires in Volt cars in the United States. A car used in a crash test began to burn three weeks after the test.

An Opel spokesman said that the Ampera could not be delivered to private customers until US safety authorities had concluded their investigations.