The concept for the Smart Car was initially developed by Nicolas Hayek, president of Swatch Group, the Swiss watchmaker famous for its fashionable plastic watch dials and band graphics. Swatch's original idea was to produce a radical new small car suitable for city driving using advanced technology, such as a hybrid powerplant. It was to be priced low enough to be affordable to the young people who made up much of Swatch's clientele. Hayek also believed there would be a good market for rentals at train stations, where visitors could get a small car for traveling relatively short distances. Originally it was also intended to be short enough to allow the driver to nose-into a normally parallel parking set-up and thus allow more parking. Hayek began the development by working with the Engineering School of Biel in 1990. In 199. eventually, Swatch set up a joint venture with Volkswagen. Both companies pretty much lost their way and make nothing noteworthy now but when they were on the upswing it was some combination.
No comments:
Post a Comment