EV-Maker Think Launches North American Operation, Says Sales to Begin in 2010

EV-Maker Think Launches North American Operation, Says Sales to Begin in 2010

Think City EVs like this model at recent event in  Monaco are headed for U.S.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Think is back, part of an apparent resurgence of interest in battery-powered electric cars.

The Norwegian electric car maker, once owned by Ford and headquartered, briefly, in Southern California, has announced formation of Think North America with plans to begin selling a sub-$25,000 EV in the U.S. in 2010.

Think Global Chief Executive Jan-Olaf Willums hinted at the company's North American plans in an interview last month with Green Car Advisor.

On Monday, the plan was rolled out, revealing that Think is partnering with two major venture capital firms to form the new subsidiary.

The move signals a new level of interest in battery-powered electric cars, once thought to be the vehicles that would help free the U.S. from its dependency on oil but abandoned by regulators and major automakers in the late 1900s as impractical because of cost and between-charge range restrictions.

Soaring fuel prices, growing concerns about energy security and advances in storage battery technology have helped reignite interest in EVs.

Think North America will be a joint venture of Think Global and venture firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and RockPort Capital Partners. Each of the venture firms will hold a 25 percent share and Kleiner Perkins managing partner Ray Lane will chair the new company. Kleiner Perkins, a well-regarded high-tech venture firm with a bent toward "green" companies, also is a backer of nascent plug-in hybrid car developer Fisker Automotive. The firm also helped fund a cellulosic ethanol company that General Motors Corp. is working with in hopes of finding an efficient and reasonably priced method of making alcohol-based fuel from waste and non-food plant material rather than from corn, the present ethanol feedstock in the U.S.

The drive to produce ethanol to help replace gasoline has diverted a substantial amount of corn from the food chain, and is one of the factors driving huge, worldwide price increases for grain-based foods in recent months.

Proponents of electric vehicles say their preferred form of propulsion power would end the growing controversy over use of food crops to produce transportation fuels.

Think's City car is designed to replace internal combustion engine vehicles in urban areas where daily commutes are relatively short. The cars' batteries can be topped up in three hours or so but must be plugged into the commercial power grid for eight hours if completely drained.

The North American company initially will be headquartered in Menlo Park, near Stanford University in the heart of California's Silicon Valley high-tech region.

That makes it a neighbor of San Carlos-based EV maker Tesla Motors, which builds a $98,000 battery-electric roadster and has plans to launch an electric sedan and a small city car that would likely compete with the first of Think's North American vehicles.

Later, though, the company is likely to move to Southern California, where it hopes to set up a North American assembly facility for the plastic-bodied Think City and possibly, other, larger electric vehicles.

The City is a 65-mph, 2-seat commuter car that can travel up to 110 miles on a single charge of its sodium batteries. The company hopes to begin using lighter, more powerful lithium ion batteries soon and has development contracts with battery makers A123 Systems and EnerDel.

Think said it hopes to achieve annual production and sales of 30,000 or more City cars in the U.S., Canada and Mexico within a few years.  The company intends to place cars with utility companies and high-profile businesses such as Google next year for testing and evaluation before launching U.S. sales.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.