Think electric car. That's a good idea. It's also the name of a new battery-powered pure electric vehicle that is in the initial production stages in Norway. Aurskog, Norway is not one of the automotive manufacturing centers of the world, and it's an interesting story.
The company, originally named Pivco, started in 1991 and built a few cars over the next seven years. Ford got interested in 1999, bought the company and renamed it Think Nordic. They spent $150 million over the next four years, and then, with typical Detroit wisdom, pulled the plug in 2003. The company went bankrupt, which was a shame because the design was 95% complete. The car was designed with a steel space frame chassis to meet both US and European crash standards.
In 2006, a group of investors led by a Norwegian venture capitalist bought the company from Ford for $15 million. They have raised almost $100 million to restart the company. The car is now in early production in their small factory. They can produce about 40 cars a day, but they have big plans to build more plants, and high on their list is southern California. They say the Think is ideally suited to the needs of the market here.
So, what kind of car is the Think? As you probably guessed it is a small urban runabout. A two-door hatchback, designed primarily as a 2-seater, but an optional back seat can be added.
If you would like to see a picture of the Think, click here. (Note: You may have to register on the LA Times web site to view this, but it is free.)
Because of its modular construction, the car consists of only 580 parts! The automatic transmission in my car probably has more parts than that. This thing should be very easy to build, and that simplicity should result in very low maintenance costs and good durability.
As with all battery-powered cars, the big problem is the battery. They have two choices at the moment: sodium-sulfur and lithium ion. The range is 112 miles on a full charge. Both battery types are very expensive, and would force the sticker price over $30K. To get around the battery cost, they are considering a novel idea…sell the car and lease the battery. This would reduce the sticker by about $10K, but would add about $200/month for the lease. Battery maintenance and replacement would be free.
An article in the LA Times described the driving experience as follows:
"The Think scoots away from stop lights thanks to its torque-rich electric motor, and doesn't feel at all strained at highway speeds of 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph). First impressions: dead solid, quiet, comfortable, fully realized. A real car." They add that it is "perhaps the best electric car in the world."
I have been saying for some time, here on Gather and elsewhere, that this kind of vehicle is exactly what is needed in urban and suburban environments. The vast majority of commuters travel less than 40 miles per day. That leaves plenty of capacity for running errands, picking up kids at school, etc.
Just think what could happen if we ended the Iraq War and spent 10% of the savings on subsidies for people to buy these things. Once the volume is there, I am confident that the battery cost will come down. This is the urban car of the future.
I want one!
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 27
Build me a car with quick charge, energy storage capacitors (In place of batteries), built in solar charging panels, an energy capture braking system, a 300 mile range at night and a much longer range on a sunny day, 100 mile an hour plus top speed and decent 0-60 acceleration....I'll buy one. Oh...and it can't look like a red monkey turd with wheels.
So how many square meters could you put on a car? One or two at the most. So...maybe a couple hundred watts. If you go for a one hour drive in bright sun you could charge the battery with 0.2 KW-Hr. Meanwhile, the car will be using 10-15 KW-Hr for that one-hour drive. If you left it parked in the sun for 8 hours, you could add 1.6 KW-Hr.
I like your parameters, but they are unrealistic in the foreseeable future. If we wait for the battery technology to give us a cheap, durable 300 mile battery, we will probably wait forever. We have to walk before we learn to run. Most people who live in urban and suburban areas can find real practical use for a car with a 100 mile range. Not as their ONLY car. But most families have more than one car anyway. We have three, although one of them is an ancient Jeep pickup...my Home Depot truck.
Unless the government steps in with big research grants...which wouldn't be a bad idea...we aren't going to get the perfect electric car for awhile. But I think this car is worth doing today...and I think it will sell.
We need it.
Obviously this little guy is an urban commuter car...which is the right place to start, I believe. But in the long run, we need ALL sizes of electric cars.
Eventually, I think most cars will be electric...the exceptions being long-distance cross-country vehicles, of course.
So nothing I have mentioned about my version of an electric car is available yet...and that is precisely my point....I'm not ready to use the electric car technology...at this point in it's development...unless I had about $200K.
Here is where I would jump in to an electric auto ....if I had about $200,000 and IF I could get one...I'd buy a Tesla Electric Roadster. 100% electric, 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, 256mpg equivalent, 220 mile range per charge. And they are beautiful. http://www.teslamotors.com/
I do agree that the research and development of electric cars is important and I agree that for some folks, an electric car with a 100 mile range and a 60 or 70 mph top end is adequate. And you are right...we have to start somewhere.
I think your little Think car will sell too. I hope it will. I would like a few words with the body designers though. :-)
As for regen braking, every hybrid car that I know of has it, and the Think does too. Sorry I failed to mention that in the article.
The Tesla is a beautiful piece of work. It "only" costs $100K, though, so if you were thinking of buying one at $200K, you now can look at a real bargain!
Like I said...I hope I have this right.
The Tesla STARTS at $109K . I want one loaded!!!
I'm going to need your help Bert...now that I know you are so PV cell savvy. My wife and I are going to use solar energy for our farm house. May I consult you along the way? We will be moving to the farm on a permanent basis in about 5 years.
Capacitors have advantages and disadvantages compared to batteries. Capacitors store the charge electrostatically...simply mass storage of electrons. Batteries store the charge electrochemically. Capacitors can be charged and discharged indefinitely...there are no inherent "wear-out" mechanisms. Batteries, of course do wear out due to anode/cathode erosion, electrolyte contamination, etc. Capacitors, in general, have much lower capacity per unit weight or volume than batteries. If anyone is ever able to design a capacitor that equals or exceeds the energy capacity of a battery, the world will beat a path to his/her door.
Of course this "ultracapacitor" is still in the laboratory stage at this point, but it looks very promising for hybrid vehicles. It could improve the "supercapacitor" capacity in current hybrids by a factor of ten, and that would really help with so-called "pluggable hybrids." It does not appear that this will help with the car described in this article, since the new technology still only brings capacity up to somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of current batteries. It could be used in the "hybrid battery" that I described earlier, though.
I have studied this stuff fairly extensively, Michael. I am certainly no expert in battery or ultracapacitor design, but I am an electrical engineer by training, so I understand the basic physics and the energy equations involved. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around out there, and with all due respect, your idea of solar cells on a car to extend the range is a fairly common one.
But in the final analysis, it comes down to the energy storage medium. Let's face it, gasoline is a wonderful, extremely dense energy storage medium. Trying to equal that with a storage battery is a daunting task. That's what you are essentially requiring when you demand a 300 mile range before you will buy an electric car.
There are a lot of people who are saying exactly what you are saying, and I think it's wrong. You...and they...do NOT need a 300 mile range. It is just what you are accustomed to.
(I admit I do tend to use bugmenot.com instead of registering....)
Here..I found an article about this : http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1480
There may very well be an additional burden of paying lump sum road taxes for those who choose to drive a vehicle that does not burn taxed fuel.
This seems fucking preposterous to me...but it is indicative of the mentality of our government. (they want us to go green, but not really)
And so, will we be faced with securing proof of tax stickers from the federal government and each state we enter with our "green" car? If not...how will the states and the feds recover the lost revenue from the sale of gasoline and diesel fuel?
What do you think?
Enoch...I share some of your cynicism, but in this case, the car was designed by Ford for the American market. So...I hope that problem is handled.
Michael...That is a very interesting question, and I haven't a clue what the answer is. I haven't even heard any discussion about it. Even a plug-in hybrid uses power grid electricity for some of its operation, but nobody has said anything about taxing it.
I suppose it would be possible to put a meter on the charging outlet in the garage, but that would be pretty easy to bypass. My preference would be that no road taxes are paid by electric cars, as a subsidy to encourage their use. But as they become more numerous, you are right that those tax revenues, which are supposedly used to maintain roads, would dwindle and the governments at various levels would have to come up with that money from another source. Oh, I think they want us to "go green," but they still want the tax money. As with everything else, government bureaucracy loves stuff like this because it gives them an excuse to hire more people.
Re biodiesel...you can modify any diesel engine to run on biodiesel. My son was going to do it to his old Mercedes 300D, but he traded it in on a Focus instead. I believe you can buy biodiesel here in southern CA, and I assume road taxes are included in the price. The guy you are talking about must have been brewing his own stuff, and yeah, I suppose that is illegal.
Gary...yeah, I have seen those old codgers tooling around in their golf carts. My sis-in-law and her husband live in one of those communities out near Palm Springs, and they have one. I'm sure nobody has suggested that they should pay road tax on the juice they use to charge their batteries. Maybe the government weenies just haven't thought of it yet.