We have our own little smart history here on AutoblogGreen, a collection of all the posts about the iconic car (recent exaples: stuffing 13 people into a fortwo or the London Met Police testing the all-electric smart ed). But the smart has been around longer that the two and a half years that we've been here and Daimler is celebrating the 10th Birthday of the little city car this month.

Since Job 1 came from the factory in July 1998, Mercedes has sold over 900,000 fortwo vehicles in 37 countries (including the U.S. starting this year, thank you very much; China will get a real chance at the fortwo in about twelve months). Still, for many green car enthusiasts, it's the future that is most exciting about the smart vehicle lineup. 2010, after all, is when the all-electric smart is due.

Quirky at its launch - and today - the fortwo was the right move for Daimler, as chairman Dieter Zetsche said in a statement: "Had we not invented it ten years ago, we would have to do so now." You can read the rest of Daimler's look back at the first decade of the fortwo after the break.

[Source: Daimler]

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In February, Daimler will start producing right-hand drive smart fortwo cdi vehicles for the UK market. Sales will start later in 2009. That's the same year that lithium-ion fortwo prototypes might begin testing (current battery-powered smarts that use sodium-nickel-chloride packs are already being tested in the UK). So, while they wait for the EV smarts, Britons will have to make due with a vehicle that has the lowest CO₂ emission of any current production car in the world (88g/km) and that boasts 71mpg (U.S.) numbers using a three-cylinder common-rail diesel engine from Mercedes-Benz that puts out 45hp. And it's pretty safe, too. Prices will be announced later.

As part of the promotions leading up to the US sales launch of the Smart ForTwo next January, the US distributor has converted a Venice Beach CA building into a Smart House. The interior of the Smart house is designed to evoke the lifestyles of the the primary purchasers of the Smart: young urban hipsters, whatever the hell that means. The main goal of the house is of course to sell cars and so visitors will be able to check out four of them on the inside with more outside available for test drives. There are more details on the Smart house after the jump including the address and hours.

[Source: Smart USA]