Norwegian electric vehicle maker Think takes its car to the US

13 March 2009

THI!NK city

Ultimately, the company hopes to employ up to 900 people and have an annual output of 60,000 cars.

‘The US is quickly overtaking Europe as an attractive market for EVs and is an ideal location to engineer and build EVs,’ said Think CEO Richard Canny. ‘We see ourselves playing a small but potentially growing role in re-inventing the US auto industry by bringing back new manufacturing jobs to the US to replace internal combustion engine vehicles that are expensive to operate and maintain with clean, efficient electric vehicles.’

The car in question is called THI!NK city, which can travel up to 112 miles on a single charge. US production is expected to get underway in 2010.

The company plans to apply for low-interest loans from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing programme, devised in 2007 to support electric vehicles in the US.

Battery makers Ener1 Inc. and A123 are already contracted to supply lithium-ion power systems for the car.

‘We are seeing a whole new system of suppliers and producers taking shape in this country to create a new high-tech manufacturing base,’ said Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer. ‘Having an important partner like Think here will help us continue to push the technology and develop this new industry even more quickly. It is also going to give us an edge against our overseas competitors.’

Copyright © 2009 newnet

Tags: electric vehicles

This story was published on Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am and is filed under Europe, North America, companies, deals, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Norwegian electric vehicle maker Think takes its car to the US”

1. Pauli Dorner says:

   13 March 2009 at 5:00 pm

   What a complete and blatent grab for taxpayer dollars. Think had no plans, and had published statements against any such plans, until the US stimulus bill was signed. Then, all of a sudden, they came up with this “great” idea to build a US plant just when all of the stimulus money says it can only go to US companies. So Thinks government and investors in its country won’t give it any money so they are going to fake up a factory plan and make a grab for US taxpayer dollars when we already have too many US car companies.. GIVE ME A BREAK! This is a corrupt idea.

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