Mercedes-Benz Smart electric scooter gets nod

Since it was launched at the show, the electric line-up that included the Smart ebike and fortwo electric coupé and a convertible cars has nabbed a swag of awards, including a prestigious red dot international design gong for 'best of the best'.

Smart has decided to reward the little city scooter's contribution towards that by putting it into production, with a launch date in 2014.

"With this step, we are adding a further important component to our smart mobility concept for urban mobility in the future," Mercedes-Benz executive vice president of sales and marketing, Dr Joachim Schmidt says.

The escooter will follow in the footsteps of the ebike which is rolling out now in Europe and the Smart fortwo electric car, which has just been test-driven by Carsguide and goes on sale in Europe shortly.

Mercedes-Benz says there will be more development of the escooter motor show concept before it is launched. In Europe a license will not be required for the scooter, targeting the younger buyer who is not looking at cars.

“Anyone who thinks of urban mobility has to think of smart,” says Dr. Annette Winkler, the head of smart. “We offer the perfect zero-emissions vehicle for every requirement, and with our products, electric travel is a lot of fun too.”

Will we see it bring all that 'urban mobility fun' here? It's not being ruled out, according to Mercedes-Benz Australia. "I wouldn't say no but it's too early to talk about the scooter and the bike," spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says. "But we certainly wouldn't say no, and will be investigating the case for both of them."

"One of the main reasons is that we want to help give the Smart brand a lift in Australia and this could form part of our strategy. So if the technical case is good, we've got a business case to look at."