A place for Smarts in the U.S.?

A couple of weeks ago, Chronicle energy blogger Lynn Cook wrote about spotting a Smart Car on Buffalo Speedway — a pretty rare sight, considering that there are only eight dealerships in the U.S. selling the cars, and the closest are in Phoenix and Colorado Springs. Still, Cook reports that ZAP, the company marketing the Smart Cars in America, has big plans for the tiny vehicles.

In case you're not familiar, Smart Cars are super-efficient two-seaters that are pretty popular in Europe. They were originally intended to help Europeans find parking spaces — the cars are so short that they can be parked back-in in parallel parking spots — but they were also noted for their maneuverability, fuel efficiency and design (the Smart Car even appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit in 2002).

Even so, the Smart Cars were more expensive than some conventional four-seaters and sales never met expectations. They've been popular in Canada since their introduction in 2004, and now ZAP is hoping to bring that success to the U.S. ZAP and DaimlerChrysler, which manufactures the Smart Car, locked horns for quite a while, but that seems to be settled (at least for now). The Smarts are EPA rated at 40 miles per gallon and start at $25,000. Any bets on how long it'll be before Houston gets a Smart dealership — or, more important in Houston, what happens when a big ol' pickup accidentally backs over a Smart Car?

Photo via jalopnik