Affordable Electric Car
We firstly heard about Norwegian car manufacturer Think Global, in 2003 when it was bought by Ford. Company already had an electric car prototype, and Ford invested over 100 million dollars to complete design and started pilot production… Think is small two-seater electric car with a lot of character. But in 2003 it lacked success in marketing and sales, and after California’s CARB was lifted, Ford lost interest. Ford backed out of Think, selling it to Swiss based company. Few years later Think went into bankruptcy… During liquidation number of Norwegian investors bought the company…
Well, it was not the first bankruptcy for Norwegian company… So, as Think is reemerging these days, it is only natural to expect so. Appropriately for northerners, Think - Affordable Electric Car is still ecological vehicle. Newly announced car - Think City is a pure electric car with reach of 110 miles - twice that of 2003 model. Think City is manufactured northwest of Oslo, Norway. In next months first shipments to Norway, Denmark and Swiss will commence, and by the end of 2008 this electric car will be sold in markets allover Europe and USA. Management of Think is optimistic, as this time they are pretty sure, that they have caught the right timing, and they also emphasize gained new, more appropriate part
ners, suppliers and most importantly - car parts…
New publicly fronted partners include Porsche Consulting, Tesla Motors and Zebra batteries… Tesla motors is supplier of advanced lithium batteries, while Porsche Consulting will help with optimization of manufacturing efficiency (Porsche factories are number 1 worldwide in terms of factory efficiency and profitability ). Think is also preparing for first crash tests (NCAP / EuroNCAP). Production line started in November 2007 and by end of 2008 yearly production capacity will reach 10.000 cars.
Think is special, because it is bringing some radical new revolutionary ideas to the automotive industry. From what we heard, Think will be great - if they can deliver, of course… But imagine buying car online - as you do a Dell notebook… Select color, functionality, all accessories… And have a custom built car delivered to your door just days later… Want to take it for a test drive first? Forget about dealerships and dealing/convincing sales people, all for a quick short drive… With Think you just send an short text message (SMS) to car-sharing franchise, and they will contact you when its appropriate time to bring you the car to test…
Technical specifications of Think City are impressive… Advantages of Electric Car are mostly economical and environmental! Range of 112 miles/180 kilometers on new battery (battery pack in Think consists of around 3000 single batteries - in contrast to Tesla roadster, which has over 7000; alternative battery pack from Zebra batteries has lower reach, but other advantages as charge density and durability), and complete compliancy to every safety standard in the world, just to begin with. Top speed of the car is 60 mph/100 km/h , but acceleration makes it fun to drive and hard to keep up… Car’s battery can be filled up during the night as a standard plug in - at the fraction of the cost of petrol or diesel. Think City is battery powered and does not need oil changes or regular maintenance. More over 90% of the energy you put in the Think City goes directly to moving the vehicle (a traditional combustion engine loses almost 70% of the fuel energy to heat and friction). Even thought Think does not use direct drive motor, its efficiency is still high due to light weight. Lifetime of a battery pack under optimal conditions is around 100.000 miles / 160.000 km. Every car has Internet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication facilities. These communication capabilities will be used so that car can communicate with owner, and with other Think cars/owners. For example - if you just parked your ThinkCity in garage and threw yourself on sofa, then remembered that you are unsure about level of batteries - no need to stand up again… Just send an SMS to the car, and it will reply with status. Car will also remind you via e-mail if it needs to be serviced. You read correctly - email and texting services are supported…
Think also has a plan to deal with single most pressing problem in electric cars - batteries. When you will buy a car, you cannot buy a battery. Instead battery will be leased to owner in form of mobility fee for a $199/€150 per month (and this will include also subscription to mobile/internet service etc)… Average price of operating a car is around $5/3€ per 100 miles/150km. As battery life is decreasing through time, owner will pay less and less for it, or have it replaced for new one. “It’s simple as that - we want you to buy mobility “, says CEO and owner of Think, Jan-Olaf Willums. Big decision whether owning an Electric Car is viable for you, still depends on final price - as the car is still not officially released, it is unknown, but speculated to be south of $35.000 / 25.000€…