Th!nk again! Norway electric car is very much alive

The creators of Norway's plastic-bodied Th!nk electric car nearly had to give up on it in 1999 when they ran out of development cash.

Ford Motor Co. stepped in, bought the business and brought the little car to life. Less than three years later, though, Ford abandoned the project, leaving a second-generation Th!nk just months from production.

But Th!nk has outlived its latest death notice. Think Nordic AS of Aurskog, Norway, which makes the Th!nk, is preparing to introduce a plastic-bodied car by the end of next year. Think Nordic now is part of Swiss company Kamkorp Microelectronics Inc., which bought it from Ford in 2003.

"We're still very much alive," said Michael Eimstad, Think Nordic marketing coordinator, in a telephone interview this month.

The Th!nk Public, set to debut in the fourth quarter of 2005, will differ from both the original Th!nk City and the second-generation City that never made it onto the streets. Think Nordic is creating a four-passenger, low-speed electric vehicle intended for car-share programs at train stations and airports in Europe.

The Th!nk City was a two-seat car capable of reaching minimum highway speeds and recharged from a household plug.

"The next-generation Th!nk City would have been too expensive, by our thinking, to make a sustainable business case. But we had an opportunity present itself for the shared car," Eimstad said. "We made changes."

The original Th!nk was the brainchild of boat rotomolder Pivco Industries AS in Norway.

Ford introduced its City as part of its overall electric-vehicle strategy at the Detroit auto show in January 2000.

The first vehicles were sold in Europe, where they quickly earned loyalty in their home country.

"Norway hadn't had car production before," Eimstad said. "So when Pivco and Th!nk started, it generated a lot of interest."

Americans got their first glimpse of the car at the Los Angeles auto show in January 2002. In all, more than 200 of the first-generation City vehicles were in the United States.

But the following summer, interest in electric-powered vehicles fell in the United States, prompted by increased attention to fuel cells as an alternative power source and a court ruling that ended California's proposal that would have required automakers to provide electric-powered vehicles. By August, Ford said it was ending the Th!nk experiment.

Eimstad said it wasn't a core business for Ford. "Our production line had changed over for the new Th!nk City," he said. "The tooling had been changed, the factory was ready for production, and there was no production."

That is when Switzerland's Kam-korp Microelectronics bought the business from Ford and began considering how to keep the project moving.

With the expensive second-generation City ruled out, Frazer-Nash Research in Mytchett, England, a unit of Kamkorp, came forward with its concept of a shared car - a car used jointly by drivers who pay for the amount of time they use it.

"This is a unique possibility to show the market and other major players in the field of sustainable transportation our new products and concepts," said Think Nordic Managing Director Bernd Winkler.

The Public will be a boxy, four-seat vehicle with a top speed of 31 mph - down from the City's 52 mph - and a range of 62 miles.

The car is aimed for comfortable use, with heat and working windows, rather than the bare bones of a typical neighborhood electric vehicle that more closely resembles a golf cart.

"It's a quality car, but it's a simple car," Eimstad said.

Think Nordic hopes to sell about 5,000 Publics annually. The company expects to employ about 100 people once production starts, up from 60.

The original City has not disappeared. Ford sold about 1,000 of the vehicles before halting the project. About 275 City cars originally sent to the United States, Britain and Denmark on a short-term lease program are headed back to Norway and customers waiting there.

"It takes some time to refurbish them for the market here," said Jan Johansson, spokesman for Ford of Norway.

For example, U.S. cars must be converted to a 240-volt charging system from the 120-volt U.S. standard. Johansson said the cars will not make it to consumers until the end of 2005.

Ford has a list of about 500 customers waiting to claim available vehicles. They will sell for 99,000 Norwegian kroners, or about $16,000 at current rates.

Norwegians' desire is not merely national pride. Johansson said that national law allows electric-car drivers to use the bus lane - which can save some Oslo drivers more than 45 minutes on their daily commute.