Who owns smart?
smart, an automotive brand, is owned by Mercedes-Benz Group (Germany, XETRA: MBG).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Mercedes-Benz Group AG Annual Report 2025, 5 March 2026. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Mercedes-Benz Group AG reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇩🇪 Germany, Stuttgart
- Origin
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- Founded
- 1994
- Category
- Automotive › Cars › Electric vehicles
- Parent ticker
- XETRA: MBG
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About smart
smart began as a joint project with Swatch to build a tiny city car, which is where the S in its name comes from. It is now a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, building electric cars in China to a German design.
Ownership timeline of smart
- Current owner Mercedes-Benz Group [1] reported
Where smart sits in Mercedes-Benz Group
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Mercedes-Benz Group ownership tree →
See the full Mercedes-Benz Group brand portfolio (4) →
Other brands owned by Mercedes-Benz Group
Mercedes-Benz Group controls 4 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in automotive.
Also in automotive
- Mercedes-AMG (1967)
- Mercedes-Benz (1926)
- Mercedes-Maybach (1909)
Other brands in electric vehicles, and who owns them
The 23 brands in electric vehicles on Brandtree belong to 15 owners. The largest is NIO, with 3.
About the owner: Mercedes-Benz Group
Mercedes-Benz Group is a publicly listed company headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, founded in 1926. Brandtree records 4 brands under its control, and it is listed as XETRA: MBG.
Mercedes-Benz descends from the two men who independently invented the petrol car in 1886, whose companies merged in 1926. It was called Daimler until 2022, when it renamed itself after its own product following the separation of its truck business.
Mercedes-Benz Group: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇩🇪 smart and other German brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 252 brands that began in Germany. 93 of them (37%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; smart is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of smart?
The parent company of smart is Mercedes-Benz Group, a publicly listed company headquartered in Germany.
Is smart German?
Yes. smart originated in Germany in 1994 and its owner, Mercedes-Benz Group, is also headquartered in Germany.
Is smart still owned by Mercedes-Benz Group?
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, smart is still owned by Mercedes-Benz Group. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Mercedes-Benz Group AG Annual Report 2025 — Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Annual report, published 5 March 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
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