Think City on the way
Electric vehicles conjure up different emotions for people - some see them as having no place on the road (people like Jeremy Clarkson, although I think there is no place on the road for Jeremy Clarkson!), others see them as salvation to our modern congested cities.
Video from Danny’s Contentment (link at bottom of post)
They certainly work well in cities where their small size, zero-emissions, and in London, preferential treatment within the congestion charging zone all go in their favour. The most popular vehicle is G-Wiz, sold by GoinGreen and made in India by Reva. Although there has been a couple of recent upgrades (AC-Drive and different battery technology, improved brakes & safety etc) which have improved both the range and performance, in my own opinion, they do look rather quirkly - not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but they invoke memories of those little blue invalid carriages that were around in the 70’s.
One car that didn’t look so bad was the Norwegian developed Think City. Originally the company that developed it was bought by Ford, but shortly before the final development of the ‘Mark II’ version, Ford pulled the plug on the company - see earlier post for more. However, new investors were found and the Think City 2 is now in production.
Looking more like a ‘proper’ car (which helps it gain acceptance amongst the population at large), it has some innovative features.
- Built-in Telemetrics - you can text/sms your car to check battery status, pre-heat the interior and pre-start the engine
- Lithium Polymer batteries give 120 mile range and 50 mph top speed. The batteries will be permanently leased from the supplier which means they will be automatically changed when performance drops below a certain point.
- Fully homogenised - essentially means that it is classed as a proper car rather than a ‘quadracycle’. As such it has undergone crash testing etc like regular mainstream cars
- High quality production - it ‘feels’ like a mainstream car rather than a kit car
The new Think City is due in UK in RHD (right-hand drive) towards end of 2008
More Information:
Danny’s Contentment has some video footage of driving the Think City (plus lots of other great stuff on the life and times of an Electric Vehicle owner in London)
