This announcement could be the start of something big.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a company in Norway (which has links to Ford) has lined up some big bucks to build and sell electric cars in major U.S. cities.
The Journal reports:
Norway's
Think Global AS, with backing from U.S. venture capital investors, plans to produce and sell a small all-electric car in the U.S. that could go as far as 110 miles when fully charged -- fresh evidence that the race to woo American consumers with electric cars is heating up and drawing interest from the same investors that helped build Silicon Valley.
The marketing of this car will be focused on big cities.
The Journal explains why:
Jan-Olaf Willums, Think Global chief executive officer, said Think plans to sell the City, to be priced less than $25,000, in densely populated cities because of the car's limited range. The car is just hitting the market in Norway, Sweden and Denmark where a typical user drives the vehicle for a relatively short commuting distance and plugs it into an electric outlet in his garage to charge it overnight.
Meanwhile, Chevy says it still hopes to have its electric car -- called "The Volt" -- out by late 2010.
Read a status report here.
Chevrolet.com says:
When it comes to plugging in, the Volt will be designed to use a common 110-volt household plug. For someone who drives less than 40 miles a day, Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions. For longer trips, Chevy Volt's range-extending power source kicks in to recharge the lithium-ion battery pack as required. We expect a driving range of an estimated 640 miles.
There is even a group called the
Electric Auto Association. Of course, the notion of an electric car is not new. It came and went once before. What happened?
Click here for a discussion about the 2006 movie "Who KiIled the Electric Car?"
See other electric vehicles already on the road.
Just last night I saw a report on a new...
