TH!NK to resume making electric city cars soon

Think said that it has exited court protection in its base country of Norway and secured an additional $47 million in equity from a new set of. Investors include EnerDel, which supplies batteries to Think, and others.

This allows them to restart production of the Think City as soon as possible. That car is a highway-capable all-electric car, able to go about 60 miles per hour and a distance of about 100 miles. It’s a small two-door sedan with a hatchback. It is marketed to people who want an electric vehicle for daily commuting needs, able to do errands and daily driving, but not long trips. However as noted on the ElectricAid message board, given a suitable charging station (such as an ocean going ferry) the Think City can make really long trips.

Think plans to make the car available to European consumers by the end of 2009. It is also hoping to manufacture Think City cars in the U.S. for U.S. consumers in the future.

An earlier Think city model was available for lease in California but were recalled in the wake of rules changes in that state; some were sent back to Norway. The current brush with bankruptcy is only the latest transformation this company has seen. Think was originally an independent company, later was owned by Ford Motor Corporation, then later made independent again. Today Think has a mixed ownership including Ener1 (parent of EnerDel) who is now the largest shareholder and will own about 31 percent of the company, as well as production partner Valmet Automotive and Norwegian government investment fund Investinor.

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.