🇨🇳 smart Automobile Co., Ltd.
Sino-German joint-venture electric-car manufacturer headquartered in Hangzhou Bay, China; operates the smart brand (originally founded 1994 in Germany by Mercedes-Benz and Swatch).
Owned from
🇨🇳China non-EU
Mercedes-Benz Group AG (50%) and Zhejiang Geely Holding (50%)
Ownership
smart Automobile Co., Ltd. was formed in 2019 as a 50/50 joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Group AG (Germany) and Geely Holding (China), replacing Mercedes-Benz's prior sole ownership of the smart brand. The company is headquartered in China; the new smart line-up (#1, #3, #5) is designed by Mercedes-Benz in Germany but built at the Geely plant in Xi'an, China. The original European smart Hambach plant in France was sold to INEOS in 2020.