Remember the car2go pilot program that we wrote about in March, well it seems that after months of preparation, the pilot program is about to start. In a joint partnership with the City of Austin, Daimler is launching its car2go pilot project in North America today. The first pilot phase starts with 200 smart fortwo vehicles and a defined group of users. At some point in 2010, the number of cars will be increased and car2go will be made accessible to all Austin residents and students.

The innovative mobility concept makes city driving as easy as using a mobile phone. It offers Austin an easy, flexible, reasonably priced and progressive solution to the growing challenges of urban mobility. Austin becomes the official headquarters of car2go North America LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler.

US president Barack Obama has signed a law for a scrappage incentive for old cars based on the European model, which draws the attention of car buyers to the smart fortwo. In future, Americans who trade their old car for the two-seater will receive the maximum premium from the state.

Buyers of new cars will receive a maximum scrappage bonus of $4,500 in future when they exchange a gas-guzzling old car for an environmentally friendly new one. Unlike the German system, the Car Allowance Rebate System (Cars) – commonly called “cash for clunkers” plans for a sliding scale with the amount of the bonus depending on the fuel consumption of the new vehicle. smart fortwo buyers will always receive the maximum premium – irrespective of the old car being scrapped. The innovative smart concept with its outstanding fuel efficiency therefore presents a further attractive advantage to customers in the USA.

The smart fortwo sales have been sluggish in 2009, with sales of only about 7,451 units, which represents a decrease of 16%. Compare that to last year, when they sold 24,622 units, and you’ll see how much of an impact the bad economy has on fortwo sales.

To help the smart fortwo attract more customers, and decrease the number of pre-order cacellations, Mercedes-Benz Fiancial Srvices has decided to run a promo from now until the end of July, giving the option for buyers to qualify for 4.2% financing. Mercedes-Benz and Penske are also working on making it possible for dealers to order new fortwo’s without the need of the current refundable $99 deposit, placing more cars on the lots for customers to chose from.

Honestly, I have my doubts that a better interest rate will do it. There are people that can get better rates from their credit unions, so how will that incentivize them to head down and make the purchase. This seems like one of those ideas that the CFO had, “Oh, how about we offer them a lower, but still high, interest rate, that’ll do it.” Come on guys, where is your creativity? Isn’t smart built on the idea of being different and doing things different. So how about you start doing that. You might wanna check out Hyundai and see how they are doing things.