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
Hi Sam,
A few thoughts, to be provocative:
“these cars are 100% recyclable!”
All cars are 100% recyclable, or near as damn it! The problem is making the recycling cost effective – this car will have the same problems as all recycling.
“It can travel up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) in city driving on a fully charged battery”
So, how do you charge the battery? Currently, the necessary electricity will come from the grid. Which in most countries is coal or gas.
I would like to see ACTUAL, real CO2 emissions figures for this per mile and also during production – I have heard it said that electric cars actually emit more CO2 as a result.
“from the dashboard to the fabric, unpainted body panels (to eliminate hazardous toxins), supports, air ducts, adhesives and fixings”
Where do all these “eco-materials” come from? How can they be designed, delivered and produced at competitive cost?
Don’t get me wrong, it is good that people are trying to do this kind of thing, I am just highly sceptical of any promise of revolution.
One problem. In Georgia we have some of the dirtiest coal fired plants in the U.S. This car would be great in reducing on individuals dependency on gasoline but it probably won’t help the environment in this area.
No revolution they cost over $30,000.00. Unless you can get a car like this for under $15,000.00 no one in America will but it, at least not in any revolutionary numbers.
No, at the momnt they are too expensive. You can by a Toyota for half the price that almost gets the same MPG. Not worth it yet.
JT
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
Matt I think you would have a hard time actually understanding the “ACTUAL, real CO2 emissions figures”. What you are asking for is an unbalance number from the start. The numbers you would need would be the following:
Electric:
*Mining process
*Transport from mine to refinery
*Transportation from refinery to power plant
Power plant CO2 emissions
Gas:
Mining process
Transportation from mine to refinery
Transportation of gasoline from refinery to gas station
Car emissions
The big difference is if you have solar / wind / tidal / hydro-electric you don’t have those first three CO2 problems with cars. That virtually eliminates the CO2 production cost of the fuel for the electric car. With the constant push from the public for better / cleaner electricity supplies this will have the net effect of less CO2 emissions for the EVs.
Where I am we can actually ask for “green power” for our electricity provider. Sure it costs more but knowing that there is less CO2 may be worth it for some. If CO2 is a concern with all your gas / oil / coal power plants may I suggest that you start asking all your levels of government to do something about it.
Another consideration is you won’t find a silver bullet for a solution. This is a step in the right direction. If we get cleaner electricity, which we can do, then we can help minimize the CO2 footprint that we create. CO2 reduction is all about baby steps and this is one. I’m happy to see it and fully support the idea.
Matt is right. Forget miles/gallon or Litre, how many miles/kWatt-hour do these things get? If we swap a couple 100 Million gas cars for electric, how long until those coal power plants are overloaded? What’s the carbon footprint then? How long until it costs the same to fill your battery as it does to fill your tank? In the long run, these cars just trade one problem for another.
Actually electrically charged vehicles typically produce much less CO2 than gasoline vehicles because even the dirtiest coal power plants are magnitudes more efficient than automobile engines.
I hope that the company is smart enough to make the batteries removable for recharging. Very few city (I’m in NYC) residents have driveways to charge overnight.
“So, how do you charge the battery? Currently, the necessary electricity will come from the grid. Which in most countries is coal or gas.
I would like to see ACTUAL, real CO2 emissions figures for this per mile and also during production – I have heard it said that electric cars actually emit more CO2 as a result.”
I don’t understand why people would think that, to me it’s common sense. Is it more efficient to get your power from a large central generator (the power company) or to have everyone run a generator to power their home. Now I suppose it might have a larger carbon footprint if your power is generated by a very dirty coal power plant but the nice thing is that it doesn’t have to be that way, it’s much easier to change where you get your electricity than it is to change how you power your car. You can get your electricity from solar, wind, hydroelectric or geothermal, but you can’t directly power a car by any of those methods. And of course it’s much much cheaper to run a car on power from the grid than by burning gas.
Air conditioning?? It is an absolute must in Florida.
Coal power plants i can see some people’s concern as the power source is still rather limited in scope as to the carbon footprint on the environment. However if people would be more open to the idea of large solar arrays, wind farms, and yes Nuclear Power, the price will remain low, the energy sources plentiful, and the carbon footprint almost completely eliminated. Nuclear power suffers from waste disposal, which very likely could be solved with enough funding.
I say that they should take all the funding they’re putting into fuel cell, and hydrogen power (which is both limited and still heavily reliant on a bad infrastructure), and pump it into nuclear research to help with waste disposal, more efficient use of fuel rods, and miniaturization of nuclear energy, so maybe one day we can all have miniature nuclear power plants in our homes or vehicles.
I could respond, but EmFo sums it up nicely:
“In the long run, these cars just trade one problem for another.”
Power consumption at night is much less, due to less demands on the power grid. In some markets, electricity is actually cheaper at night, which is when you would most likely be charging the batteries.
The energy to move something has to come from somewhere. If not the power grid, where else? Sure, mass transit would be better, but even buses and trains would need energy.
My problems with it is that I cannot get it next year, it will cost more than I was planning on spending, and the solar panel should cover the whole roof and the hood.
What is the cost of recharging the battery overnight? How much electricity is required every night to charge the battery?
“No revolution they cost over $30,000.00. Unless you can get a car like this for under $15,000.00 no one in America will but it, at least not in any revolutionary numbers.”
Are you kidding? 30K, with never having to buy gas again? I’d eat it up. Charge it overnight when electric rates are lower, we make our own power during the day with our solar panels on the roof….
Sign me up!
I agree with Stuart and Matt. We never think about the source of electricity, how much pollution has the process of electricity generation already caused, even before it reaches the car? You guys look like ‘more than’
regular guys, so I’m gonna ask a question. I’m sure most of you would have heard about water4gas and nobody believes it. Just check out the explanation given on this website, it referres to a piece of research done at MIT. They say, hydrogen gotten by electrolysis of water cannot be giving the energy, but instead hydrogen combusts easily and quickly and this improves the combustion environment inside the engine so that gasoline burn rate is improved. I don’t know how good I was in explaining that, but this website does a pretty good job, check out http://water4gasscam.bestdealsreviews.com/hydrogen_cars.html and please post your comments here. Cheers!
Even if you produce all your electricity with 100% coal power plants, you’re still talking about emitting substantially less CO2 than a gasoline engine. http://www.evworld.com/evguide.cfm
EmFo apparently doesn’t realize that coal-fired plants can’t shut down at night, so they have excess capacity. Charging an electric car at night makes use of that energy, smoothing out the demand curve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_demand
EVs are substantially more efficient than gasoline engines, even if they’re still powered by fossil fuels. Plug-in Series hybrids are the next evolutionary step, followed by the prevalence of fast chargers, then pure battery-electric vehicles. Only problem is that the oil conglomerate’s CEOs won’t like it one bit.
I will buy one (at least), and 2 extra battery packs, with a secondary charger!!! Hopefully they look forward and have cool accessories like that. Ford ain’t building my 4 banger twin turbo super diesel with an 8 speed and propane injectors into a small body (ranger, bronco or focus) anytime soon so lets just forget about them!
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!