Advance purchase orders from US auto dealers for ZAP’s Americanized version of the smart car have exceeded $500M.

ZAP introduced the “Smart Car Americanized by ZAP”  to US dealers in February. (Earlier post.)

ZAP owns the technology to Americanize the smart car to meet US emissions and safety standards, and holds all licensing rights from non-affiliated Smart-Automobile LLC, from which it buys the smart cars, to perform the Americanization.

Presumably DaimlerChrysler’s decision to hold off on new plans for bringing the smart car directly into the US (earlier post) will not affect ZAP, since the company imports the cars for modification.