Th!nk (electric city car) launches U.S. business

[DainBramaged]

When Think Global brings its small electric City car to the United States, it hopes to take one big worry off the minds of buyers: what to do if something goes wrong with the battery.

The answer: Have the customer lease, not buy, the battery.

The Norwegian electric-car maker said today that it has set up a unit, Th!nk North America, to launch the City in the United States.

Think Global set up the North American unit with two " clean tech" venture capital partners: RockPort Capital Partners, of Boston, and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, of Menlo Park, Calif. Each venture capital firm has a 25 percent stake in the new company, which is temporarily headquartered at Kleiner Perkins' California offices.

" It's the only electric vehicle we're aware of that's ready for mass production and for scale-up," says Th!nk North America Chairman Ray Lane, a managing partner at Kleiner Perkins. Kleiner Perkins also has investments in Fisker Automotive Inc. and another, unidentified electric-vehicle company.

Says Th!nk North America's acting president, RockPort managing general partner Wilber James: " Electric vehicles themselves may in fact be the wave of the future. … We think we've got a big winner here."

The company plans to import the City from Norway, starting with a demonstration fleet of 50 vehicles aimed at utilities. Th!nk North America hopes to have the vehicles ready for sale to the public next year and said it plans to eventually manufacture vehicles here.

To sell the vehicles, Th!nk North America executives say they are considering options including setting up a dealer network and selling directly to customers.

Th!nk projects that the City will sell for less than $20,000, says Lane. " We want to be under the price of a Prius," he says.

Th!nk also may use a battery leasing program similar to one it uses in Europe. Under the program, the automaker owns and maintains the battery, and the customer pays a monthly fee for the battery along with electricity and insurance.

" It takes away their concern about battery management," says Lane.

The City is 123 inches long, longer than a Smart ForTwo but shorter than a Toyota Yaris hatchback. The City has a range of about 110 miles and a top speed of about 65 mph.

Think Global CEO Jan-Olaf Willums says the company may raise the top speed for the United States, though that would decrease the vehicle's range.

The City uses sodium nickel chloride batteries that take two to three hours to charge after a day of driving or about eight hours to charge if fully depleted. The company has contracts with U.S. battery makers A123 Systems Inc., of Watertown, Mass., and EnerDel Inc., of Indianapolis, to develop lithium ion batteries for the vehicle.

Willums says the City is " the world's only crash-tested and highway-certified electric vehicle and is ideal for markets such as California."

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/ANA02/635899488/1197 (subscription only)


And A NORWEIGIAN electric car to boot!!!!



OH here's their website, enjoy!!!

http://www.think.no/


http://www.thinkglobalforum.com/

[Kittycat]

1. I want one!

Seriously.

[zeemike]

2. Good for them

They are doing something that American companies should of and could have done long ago.

[DainBramaged]

3. HUH, Ford developed the car, sold it to these folks

NO ONE in the 90's thought an electric car was viable. Remember, gas was 99 cents a gallon in 1999 when it was $10 a bbl for oil.

[zeemike]

4. The need for a zero emission c ar goes way back

I can remember about 1958 seeing smog so bad in LA that you could not see an oncoming car more than 50 feet away even with the head lights on in broad daylight, and having difficulty breathing.
Pollution in densely populated places has always been a problem and has never been addressed,simply because we are stuck on internal combustion for power, and the need for the oil companies to sell ever more of their product.

[diane in sf]

5. The range is decent and I like the fact they're crash tested (I wonder how they rate)