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What is it?

The feeling was instantaneous, thoroughly enjoyable, and like nothing I’d ever experienced on these streets before. Here we were, zipping to and fro on the back streets of London’s inner congestion zone in a little yellow two-seater — and I actually felt as though I was welcome to do it.

This was the latest version of the Norwegian-built Think City electric car and we were incurring no congestion charge, we were small enough to fit through any gap in the traffic...Read the full article

Does it come with go faster stripes?

Its good to see another electric car on the roads, and with the prospect of four star Euro N/CAP, it is good to see safety being taken seriously.

The problem is, its very expensive. The G-Wiz is £5000 cheaper and doesn't have the montly battery costs.  Thanks to a Lotus-engineered front crash structure, the latest G-Wiz i is also a lot safer than the old one, and performance is much improved.

A few of my friends own electric cars - one of them is up in Coventry and he reckons he saves around £50 a month in petrol, just buzzing too and from work.  With petrol prices rumoured to be hitting £1.50 by the end of the year, an electric car could be just the thing for short distance driving.

I hope that Think make a success of this car, but £14,000 buys an awful lot of car, and I don't reckon that the Think is enough car for the money.

 

14,000 GBP will translate into what, about $20,000? I know the exchange rate is richer, but whenever I look at GBP prices for cars, the U.S. prices don't seem to fully capture the currency differential. In any case, if that car is for real (more on that in a bit) and it does what they say it'll do (60-65 mph and a range of 100 miles or thereabouts), then Think City is going to be a grand slam home run in the United States.

The reason I say that is that the average car is driven 28 miles a day here. A lot of households have two cars, making special-purpose vehicles a substantial niche. As long as Think City isn't an NEV like the G-Wiz, and as long as they're not fudging on the specifications, my gut tells me they'll have a big hit on their hands.

So, that's my biggest question. Is this thing an NEV or is there really a safety cage? Will it pass U.S. standards? If it's another glorified golf cart like the G-Whiz (and a zillion other NEVs), forget about it. I want to see what Jeremy Clarkson has to say about it. Yeah, I know he'll insult it, but we all know which Clarkson insults to take seriously and which ones to merely chuckle over while sipping our gin.
 

Something else occurred to me: The review described the car as "crude," but didn't elaborate. As long as it feels as solid and smooth as your standard subcompact, I see no problem. But if it rides like a buckboard, that's going to be a big issue.

This car reminds me of daewoo they try to make small clever cars a bit like smart and mini but just doesn't make a business out of it and when daewoo went bust I thought they should have never tried to make a car and should have stuck with microwaves and stuff.