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Shared company cars are a smart idea

Businesses are starting to offer fuel efficient, communal vehicles as a benefit to employees and the environment
Alyn Edwards, Vancouver SunPublished: Friday, September 19, 2008
When Drew Geldart moved to Vancouver from Edinburgh, one of the most stressful decisions he faced was buying a car. He needed to get a job, find a home and get oriented in his new city. He needed transportation to do it.
He was greatly relieved when he signed on as sales and marketing coordinator for Karo Group -- a top branding agency in Western Canada that shapes brands through advertising, interactive, environments and communications design -- because one of the biggest, and most useful, perks was full use of the company car. Add to this, the car was eco-friendly which fit in with Geldart's environmental philosophy.
Karo Group bought a company Smart car last year. It made sense to have one fuel-efficient car that could be signed out by employees needing transportation for client visits and other purposes. But the company, a Best Workplaces in Canada award winner, went one step further allowing any employee to request the car for personal use.

Read full story here.

Smart produces one-millionth car

Hambach, France - Smart has built its one-millionth Fortwo at a time when the company is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Fortwo. The milestone car is a Micro Hybrid Drive in silver metallic and will be donated to charity.
“The Smart electric drive makes zero-emission driving in an urban environment a reality,” said Dr. Dieter Zetsche, president and CEO of Daimler AG. “The continuing rising demand shows the success and the potential of the Smart Fortwo from Hambach. This year we have already sold 90,000 cars, more than 16,000 of them in the U.S.A. From mid-2009, the Smart will also become a familiar sight on Chinese roads.”
The new Smart Fortwo electric drive with a lithium-ion battery will be produced in a small series from the end of 2009; the company debuted the Fortwo EV electric vehicle in 2006 and since 2007, a fleet of 100 Fortwo EVs has been tested in everyday service in London.
“The Fortwo is a success story,” said Anders Sundt Jensen, Head of Brand Management for Smart. “It has won lots of fans in 37 markets worldwide. The Smart is particularly sought-after in the U.S.A. which, even in the first year of the market launch, has become the third-strongest market after Italy and Germany. There it is already a familiar sight on the roads of cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco and Phoenix.”
The Smart plant in Hambach was inaugurated in 1997 and produced its first vehicle in 1998.
Source: Canadian Driver