By Staff Reporter

Daimler, the company that oversees the Smart brand might consider killing the small city carmaker since no one is interested in buying microcars anymore.

According to some specialists, Smart has cost Daimler billions of dollars since its launch and the mother company is slowly losing patience and could disappear entirely from the industry within the next five years.

We understand that a final decision on the future of Smart will be taken by the end of the year.

The information comes from the German business paper Handelsblatt and is brought to our attention by Automotive News. According to “a company insider,” Daimler’s new CEO, Ola Kallenius, who succeeds Dieter Zetsche in May, has “no history with Smart” and “no scruples about killing the brand if necessary.”

Research agency Evercore ISI estimates that Smart currently loses €500 million to €700 million annually, which works out to about $565 million to $792 million.