Smart and smarter

Business 2.0’s April “Hits & Misses” features a piece on a Santa Rosa, CA (down the road from O’Reilly World HQ) company that ZAPped Daimler where it hurts. After waving it’s sub-Mini two-seater Smart car in front of US customers at the Detroit Auto Show, Daimler thought it smarter (we’re talking bottom line, not “the greater, smarter good” here) to offer US buyers a paradoxically-dubbed Smart mini-SUV instead. ZAP routed around the roadblock between customer and auto-maker, landing a deal to offer US drivers the real article–and were overrun with orders. As of March 22nd, pre-orders have exceeded $200 Million.