Smart

Daimler has revealed the Smart EQ family, including the Fortwo, Fortwo Cabrio and Forfour, ahead of their public debut at the Frankfurt motor show next week. The German group's city car division is embracing its all-electric future, with the entire range relying solely on battery power.

According to an investigation by the EU's anti-trust regulator, BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen worked together between 2006 and 2014 to stymie competition in developing emissions cleaning technology. The so-called "circle of five", which included engineers from Audi and Porsche, are said to have "coordinated their AdBlue dosing strategies, AdBlue tank size and refill ranges ... with the common understanding that they thereby limited AdBlue-consumption and exhaust gas cleaning effectiveness".

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.

Mercedes-Benz will invest €500 million ($786 million) upgrading its Smart factory to produce a new "compact EQ model". Although the company hasn't officially announced it, it's likely this car will be the production version of the EQA Concept. Unveiled in September 2017, the EQA Concept has 200kW of combined power on tap from two electric motors — one for each axle. Range is said to about 400 kilometres.

Daimler, parent company of Mercedes-Benz and Smart, has confirmed Li Shufu, founder and chairman of Geely, has aquired a 9.69 per cent stake in the German van, truck and luxury car maker. According to The Detroit News and other outlets, Li's stake in the German company cost around €7.3 billion ($11.5 billion). Li's 103 million shares make him the largest single shareholder in Daimler, ahead of Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, which controls around 6.8 per cent of the company.