Smart has named Germany head Wolfgang Ufer as its next Europe chief. Ufer is a long-serving insider who has now been tasked with stabilizing a brand under pressure from tariffs, falling registrations, and an increasingly crowded electric vehicle market.
Smart said Ufer will take over leadership of its European operations in March. He succeeds Dirk Adelmann, who is moving to become CEO of Mercedes-Benz Switzerland. The change ends Adelmann’s seven-year tenure as Smart’s head in Europe.
Down 62 percent
Ufer, currently head of Smart in Germany, inherits a business that sold 13,100 vehicles across Europe in 2025, according to Dataforce figures. Not its best performance, as it represents a 47% decline from the previous year.
Ufer’s current regional responsibility, Germany, is Smart’s largest European market. But it is not a huge promo for his curriculum, as this market has done particularly poorly, with registrations down 62% last year to 4,726 units despite the rollout of new models.
From niche to broad
But the leadership change should be regarded as a continuity move. Ufer has worked closely with Adelmann for five years and has spent more than a decade in roles tied to the Smart brand and its transformation into an electric-only manufacturer.
Before that, he held positions within Mercedes, including board-level responsibility in Luxembourg, and later led Smart’s global smart cities initiative as the brand pivoted toward electrification.
Adelmann had to help steer Smart’s renaissance from a niche minicar brand into a battery-electric carmaker spanning multiple segments. The company launched the #1 small SUV, followed by the #3 coupe-style compact SUV and the #5 midsize SUV, its largest vehicle to date.
That strategy places it directly against far larger and better placed rivals in some of Europe’s most competitive segments, without the brand relying on a suited image.
So far, Smart’s new line-up has failed to materialize into the projected volume growth. The Dataforce figures show that the #1 was the top seller in Europe last year, followed by the #3 and the newer #5, but overall demand has been weighed down by higher prices and the loss of incentives in major markets such as Germany (though these have been revived for 2026).
Burdened starting point
An additional burden is trade policy. All Smart models are built in China through its joint venture structure with Geely. Since late 2024, the portfolio has been subject to a combined, weighty 28.8% import tariff.
While other Chinese-backed brands have shifted toward hybrids and plug-in hybrids, or announced European production to soften the impact, Smart has so far signaled no such moves. Its starting point is burdened.
The company did announce plans to deepen its cooperation with Mercedes. Also on Ufer’s agenda is a return to the roots. Smart is preparing to bring back the original minicar with the #2, expected to debut later in 2026.
