Over thousand Americans could be driving this new Norwegian all electric car by 2011.
Norwegian electric car maker Think is in serious discussion with eight
American states to open a new manufacturing plant here to build the
Think. The new plant would initially employ up to 300 workers. But,
"plans ultimately call for up to 900 employees and a capacity of 60,000
electric vehicles per year," said the company which currently operates
a production facility near Oslo in Norway with a capacity of 16,000
units per year.
According to Autoweek.com:
"Ford owned Think from 1999 to 2003 and invested more than $100 million
to develop and produce the predecessor of the current model, which it
leased to customers in California during that period. The firm was sold
in 2006, and the vehicle has been updated to meet all European safety
standards. Investors include Novus Energy Partners and Kleiner Perkins."
The good news is that with the latest model of the Think can go up to
100 miles on a single charge with a top speed of 62 mph. In Europe the
car has mainly been sold as a city commuter vehicle. However unlike the
Tesla, the Think is a car that potentially has broad market appeal and
a much lower price. Think of the Think as environmentally smarter Smart
car.
Reuters is reporting that:
"The
United States is overtaking Europe as an attractive market for electric
vehicles and is an ideal location to engineer and build them, Think
Chief Executive Richard Canny said in the statement.
"We
see ourselves playing a small but potentially growing role in
re-inventing the U.S. auto industry by bringing back new manufacturing
jobs to the U.S. to replace internal combustion engine vehicles that
are expensive to operate and maintain with clean, efficient electric
vehicles," he said.