Smart’s first four-seater will also be its first model not to be assembled at the company’s plant in Hambach, France. The ForFour will be built on the same line as Mitsubishi’s first European-designed Colt, in its fully owned NedCar plant.
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The DaimlerChrysler partners achieved more than 60% commonality in parts value, even though “you won’t find a switch the same,” between the cars, says Jan Wouter Kleinjan, project leader for the Mitsubishi Colt.
The Colt and Forfour are intended to occupy different niches in the B segment. To make the platform sharing work, efforts focused on common ‘invisible’ parts, while allowing for maximum brand differentiation in the trim and tuning of each car.
Engines and transmissions are shared between the cars, accounting for around 30% of the total value. Diesel engines are supplied from the Mercedes engine plant in Untertürkheim, Germany. Petrol engines and manual transmissions are built in the new joint Mitsubishi-DaimlerChrysler site at Kölleda, Germany. Smart’s automated transmission, supplied by Getrag, is available in both vehicles.
But while “the gearbox and all the software is the same” Mitsubishi will not offer buyers the steering wheel mounted paddle shift available with the Forfour. “We weren’t looking for that in our product,” says Kleinjan.
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By GlobalDataAlthough Mistubishi has been assembling cars at NedCar for a decade, the company adopted DaimlerChrysler’s quality gate procedure, which includes the entire programme from development to sales and marketing.
High level of supplier involvement
NedCar is not as heavily modularised as the Hambach plant. But Smart wanted to retain a degree of pre-assembled modules, both to transfer “a lot of responsibility for development from us to the supplier, and because modular concepts assist in a very short assembly time,” says Klaus Badenhausen, director of development for B segment cars at Smart.
The high level of outsourcing that has been a hallmark of Smart is evident here too. Dura supplies complete door structures as it does for Hambach, while Mistubishi has pressing capacity in-house.
In the case of NedCar, employees of supplier Johnson Controls assemble the complete cockpit module in the plant itself. The module includes pedal assemblies and the air conditioning unit. Johnson Controls had overall responsibility for the majority of the design.
Cockpit modules are an example of suppliers taking complexity off the final assembly line. There are thousands of configurations of cockpits and dashboards available on most models.
But it means that suppliers like Johnson Controls have to be good at offering the customer the savings expected through the higher volumes of ‘platform’ contracts, while still delivering a widely varied and high quality end product.
The seat system is another example. “The seats look completely different,” says Kleinjan. “They have different final tuning and stiffness, but the seat frame is exactly the same.”
Faurecia supplies the complete system to both cars, including foam pads from FS Fehrer. Grammer produces the headrests for Smart but not for the Colt. Seeber also produces the centre armrest only for the ForFour.
Some parts and systems common to Mitsubishi Colt (ZM44) and smart Forfour (ZS44):
A Raymond: Fasteners
Allevard Rejna: Front stabiliser bars
Benteler: Front subframe, rear axle
Bosch: Diesel common rail, airbag ECU
Calsonic Eberspächer: Exhaust system
Faurecia: Seat structures
Federal-Mogul: Heat shields, pistons
FS Fehrer: Moulded foam pads for car seating
Intier: All door latches, window regulators
Küster: Parking brake cables
Mann + Hummel: Fuel filters
Nacam: Tilt adjustable steering column
ThyssenKrupp: Coil springs
TMD Friction: Brake pads
TRW: Front corner module, rear brake callipers and discs
Valeo: Alternator
Yazaki: Complete wiring harness
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