Think City Electric Car

By Aleksi | Permalink | 4 comments | July 30th, 2007 | Trackback

If your car doesn’t already run on corn oil, you don’t have bluetooth enabled, and your iPod can’t download more music from the Apple Store when you’re driving, you need a new car. Okay, so maybe you don’t, but in a couple years, it may not be too far-fetched of an idea to think about “upgrading” to a car that does. Think is working on it.

No, that isn’t a typo. Think is a company owned by Jan-Olaf Willums, a company that was formerly run by Ford Motor Company. After investing $150 million into design work targeting the California market, only to hear rumor that CARB would be no more, Ford sold Think to a Swiss-based electronics company. Willums, seeing potential in the idea, purchased the now, near bankrupt company and has proceeded to resurrect the ideas and designs into fully functioning prototypes, with plans to produce a significant quantity of cars in the next five years.

The ideas behind Think are revolutionary in regard to the industry they are trying to slip into. Taking ideas from various hip consumer friendly companies, Think plans to make the cars available for online purchase, built specifically to the customer’s order. Better yet, if you want a test drive, instead of finding a dealership, haggling with salespeople, having your credit checked, haggled with some more, and finally have your old keys taken away and given a quick drive, only to be expected to purchase the car, you can simply send a text message to a Think About car-sharing franchise. Each car will be Internet and Wi-Fi capable, able to communicate with the driver, other Think owners. If you’re concerned your batteries may be running low, you can fire a text message to the car, and it will reply with the current status of the battery charge, and remind you via e-mail when it needs to be serviced. Yes, e-mail. The car is probably smarter than you are.

One of the biggest drawbacks to purchasing an electric car is the enormous cost of the onboard battery, but Think hopes to combat this by selling the car, but leasing the battery for about $200 a month, (considered a “mobility fee”) that might also include the internet access fee and insurance. As the life of the battery slowly decreases over the time of owning the vehicle, you can either choose to lease a new battery, or pay a lower monthly fee. Each new battery charge is expected to produce a range of about 112 miles.

While this may sound too futuristic and convenient to actually become a reality, Think is adamant about seeing their vision through to the end. In the words of Mr. Willums, “We want to sell mobility.”

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