Ten years ago one of the world's most unusual production vehicles was launched on the market. It was new and excitingly different to conventional cars – the smart city coupé, now called the smart fortwo. This extremely compact vehicle had just two seats and measured slightly more than two and a half metres in length. It was also able to fit into parking spaces perpendicular to the flow of traffic and it established its own class. Nevertheless, it took two people and their luggage to their destination very comfortably and with maximum safety. It also had impressively low fuel consumption and minimum carbon dioxide emissions.

From October 2008 the standard equipment of the 45 kW/61 bhp and 52 kW/71 bhp petrol-engined smart fortwo models will include micro hybrid drive (mhd) technology with a user-friendly automatic start-stop system. This reduces the NEDC consumption of the two naturally aspirated engines by an average of 8 percent. In city traffic fuel savings of almost 20 percent are even possible. Furthermore, from the autumn of 2008 the smart fortwo cdi will be equipped with a closed diesel particulate filter that almost completely eradicates particulate emissions.