smart: what it holds, with stakes and dates
Facts checked Chinese holding 50%
smart is half Chinese. Since 2019 the brand has been run by Smart Automobile Co., Ltd., a 50/50 joint venture between Mercedes-Benz AG and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group; Mercedes handles design and Geely the engineering and manufacturing. The cars are built at Xi'an in China and sold in Europe through Smart Europe GmbH in Stuttgart, so the badge is German, the ownership is half German and half Chinese, and the factory is Chinese.
The short answer
| Controlled by | nothing recorded above it — the top of the chain |
|---|---|
| Kind | brand |
| Origin | DE |
| Name in Chinese | 智马达 “JRR-mah-DAH” |
| Is it Chinese? | Partly |
Other recorded holdings in smart
Holdings that are not control, kept out of the chain above so that nothing on this page reads as ownership when it is not. A joint venture is a company two parents built together: its percentage is a share of the venture, not a holding in the partner. The same pair can appear twice with different kinds, and both rows are real.
| Holder | What it is | Share | Since | What the source says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geely Holding | runs a joint venture with | 50% of the joint venture | 8 January 2020 | smart Automobile Co., Ltd. was formally established after regulatory approvals with RMB 5.4 billion of registered capital, contributed equally by the two partners; the Geely side put in RMB 2.7 billion. The global headquarters is at Hangzhou Bay, Ningbo. smart's own newsroom now names the Geely shareholder as Geely Automobile Group Co., Ltd. |
| Mercedes-Benz Group AG | runs a joint venture with | 50% of the joint venture | 8 January 2020 | Mercedes-Benz AG holds the other half of smart Automobile Co., Ltd.; its RMB 2.7 billion contribution was covered mainly by putting the smart brand itself into the venture. Mercedes-Benz designs the cars, the Geely side engineers and builds them. |
smart: questions people ask
- Who owns smart cars?
- smart Automobile Co., Ltd. is owned half by Mercedes-Benz AG and half by the Geely side. Mercedes-Benz designs the cars, Geely engineers and builds them in China, and the venture is headquartered at Hangzhou Bay in Ningbo.
- Is smart Chinese or German?
- Both, by design. The brand is German in origin and in styling, the company is a 50/50 Chinese-German joint venture registered in China, and the cars are built in China.
- Are smart cars sold in the United States?
- No. smart lists no US market and has announced no US launch. Its current cars are built in China.
- Does smart still make the two-seater?
- Not at the moment, but one is coming back. The current #1, #3 and #5 are SUVs; smart previewed a new two-seat #2 in April 2026 and says it will have its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show in October 2026.
Related
Sources for smart
- smart Newsroom, Mercedes-Benz and Geely Holding formally established global joint venture smart Automobile Co., Ltd. for the smart brand. Read .
- smart Newsroom, Organizations. Read . Current ownership wording, smart Europe GmbH and the European national companies; the same page lists the recent #2 announcements.
- smart, smart market selector. Read . Source of the market list: the national smart sites linked from the global site.
- Wikipedia, Smart (marque) (article). Read . Finding aid for the 1994 founding of the marque.
- Wikipedia, Smart (marque). Read . The 2019 50/50 joint venture and the Chinese manufacturing base.
- Wikipedia, Smart 1. Read . Xi'an assembly.