Daimler

Ola Källenius, who steps into the position of Daimler CEO from May 22, has laid out his Ambition2039 environmental plan for the automaker. According to Källenius, the company sees the "Paris Agreement [on climate change] is more than an obligation – it’s our conviction". As such, Mercedes-Benz is aiming to have plug-in hybrid or pure-electric vehicles constitute over 50% of its car sales by 2030.

Daimler has opened a new plant near Moscow as part of a €250 million ($394.73m) investment, which will see Mercedes-Benz models produced in Russia, for Russia. The facility will create more than 1000 jobs, and initially produce the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Daimler says "SUV models will follow". According to the company, there's "high demand for Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedans and SUVs" in Russia, hence the move to produce its most popular vehicles in the region locally from here on.

A report from Handelsblatt states Daimler, owner of the Mercedes-Benz and Smart marques, will decide the fate of the city car brand by the end of the year. The decisive moves will take place from May onwards, when Ola Kallenius, currently Daimler's head of research and development, takes over from Dieter Zetsche. While Zetsche has proven to be a keen and patient supporter of Smart, it looks possible Kallenius could pull the plug.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance and Daimler, parent of Mercedes-Benz and Smart, may expand the scope of their collaboration to include electric drivetrain and self-driving car technology development.

Smart has officially been around for 20 years. The city-car maker burst onto the scene in July 1998, with a two-seater (the inventively named ForTwo) measuring just over 2.5m long. More than 2.2 million examples have been sold since then, across 46 markets around the world. Australia was one of them, but the little Smart didn't really fit into our big-car-centric culture, and so the brand was withdrawn from the market in 2015.