Think Electric Cars: Made in the USA, Sold in the USA
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a bunch of venture capitalists — those crazy folks who dump money into all your favorite online applications — are now backing Norway’s Think electric-car company. Their plan is to bring the company’s Think City car to the U.S. in 2009 and build it here as well.
The U.S. version is expected to travel 110 miles on a single charge and kind of resembles Smart’s ForTwo. The company expects the car to be priced under $25,000. It’s looking for a site in the U.S. to build U.S.-spec models because it’s cheaper to build an entire line here than it is to ship from Europe, thanks to the weak dollar. Maybe Michigan politicians should be making some calls to Oslo.
The Think City is already in production in Europe, and the company is rushing to produce 10,000 units this year for sale there. One of the people behind the VC funding says they could sell 30,000 to 50,000 Think City cars in the U.S. We doubt that, even with sky-high gas prices. Bring a production version of the Ox concept, though, and we’d expect people to line up.
Norway’s Think to Produce, Sell Small Electric Cars in U.S. (WSJ.com)
