Th!nk! Can This Eco-friendly Car Start an Electronic Revolution?
For pint-size designs, these electric cars seem to dream of a global revolution where many fear to tread, or have tried with not very impressive results. And think about it, these cars are 100% recyclable!
But Th!nk Global, yes, think with an exclamation mark, a Norwegian company buoyed by undisclosed funding injection by Silicon Valley venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and RockPort Capital Partners, is rolling out the Ox, Open and City in North America within three years after a gallant start in Europe and I can’t stop to think when they’ll ever get to Africa.
Think cars are gas-free, city cars that will start selling in the US next year but the actual mass roll out is slated for sometime in 2011, and the company has recently opened its North American division to steer the promising mad drive from the gas pumps.
Which, I think, is good news for those who feel fuel prices are already over the top, with more pump shocks yet to come if the global crude price projection is anything to go by?
Think, with more than 17 years of experience in developing and producing electric vehicles, designs, develops, manufactures and markets environmentally friendly vehicles and technologies. There are about 1,200 Think concept vehicles driving on European, mostly Norwegian, roads today.
Think’s website is full of boasts for the eco-friendliness of its models – a bold pronouncement that their cars for the future are safe for the environment. “Th!nk city demands very little of you. In fact, not much more than a mobile phone. Just an overnight power top-up, and it’s ready to go in the morning. It can travel up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) in city driving on a fully charged battery, with a top speed of 100km/h. It is fun, clean and simple.”
Think City is one of two models that are out already, together with the Think Ox. With a choice of either lithium or a sodium battery, it is gratifying that it can run up to 180 kilometers at 100km/hr without needing a recharge – enough to take a suburban dweller to the downtown office and back, with more miles to the theme park on a Friday afternoon without minding your carbon footprint.
The lithium-ion batteries have capacity to charge to 80% capacity in less than an hour, and slender solar panels integrated into the roof power the dashboard electronics.
Vicki Northrup, operations manager of Think North America says you can entirely recycle these revolutionary cars, from the dashboard to the fabric, unpainted body panels (to eliminate hazardous toxins), supports, air ducts, adhesives and fixings. If you reckon the battery is a little rusty, no problem. Simply return it to the supplier for a replacement.
The Think Ox is the company’s latest concept development and the first designated 5-seater fully electric vehicle. Think Ox is projected to be 100% emission free, and includes a unique EV platform suitable for a variety of different body styles designed for the European, North American and Asian markets.
According to Northrup, it is the basis for a variety of vehicle styles, starting with the Think Ox Crossover 5-seater. Talking of styles, the Th!nk designs are far away from anything ever created and other electronic wannabes look very, very pale in comparison.
For the busy green businessperson, the Think Ox looks like the perfect companion on the road. It is fully computerized and allows a key-less entry. It features real time navigation, web, e-mail and open source interfaces, intelligent and sustainable driving and route calculations.
The DNA-key gives the user feedback on charging status and sends messages, for example, for pre-heat or pre-cool options via GPRS.
This is a car of high dreams - drivers who are wont to car sharing will never mind about taking up the lion’s share of the fuel cost - the batteries eliminate the unnecessary haggling about which family fills up the tank on the second week of July!
With this kind of thinking, one is tempted to wonder aloud if these green motoring concepts will herald the electronic revolution on the roads…
More Posts on the Th!nk City, Th!nk Ox, and Electric Cars:
- Affordable Electric Cars Coming to US in 2009
- Th!nk Ox: An Electric Car With Style and Smarts
- The All-Electric (EV) CitiCar: Powered by the Sun
- Mindset Six50 Electric Car Mixes Gas, Li-Ion and Solar Power
- Company Turns Familiar Gas Cars Into Electric Vehicles
- An Electric Car With Muscle: The 175 MPGe X1 Prototype by Wrightspeed Inc.
- Inflatable Electric Cars: Surround Your Body in Bliss
- An Electric Car You Can Buy Today: The $20K TRIAC EV
Image courtesy: Think Global
We don’t have to fight wars to get solar, wind or even coal energy. That makes electric cars worth consideration even if they have a larger carbon footprint than gasoline cars.
I would buy an electric car if the price is reasonable. $25K to $30K for what looks like a modified golf cart is not reasonable.
Why do car manufacturers insist on putting electronic toys in vehicles. I would buy one in an instant, but the toys should always be options should be able to added later. The toys drive the price to the point it is not affordable for the typical family. I need basic transportation and don’t need Air Bags, Anti-lock brakes, anti-theft systems, GPS, On-Star, and so on. In Canada, we need Heaters, and air conditioning is a nice option(but not absolutely necessary), the rest are just gadets. It has become impossible to buy basic transportation. Any idea if this is coming to Canada and what the base cost would be?
I agree with Phil — some of these cars have way too many gadgets inside of them. And it’s typically not an option to get the car without them.
If the U.S. had decided to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times, solar/thermal-molten sodium – electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only - FOREVER! It is an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power for all! After the millions of murders, and billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and spent, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich, daddie’s, Arabic saber dancing boy, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep!