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3
Handling
Performance
2
Usability
Feelgood factor
Readers' rating
3.5
By James Foxall
First Drives
25 August 2009 10:53
Bespoke electric cars like the Th!nk City that don’t look like they’re on the run from the local golf course are thin on the ground. The Norwegian battery car specialist is keen to ensure electric derivatives of regular cars such as the Mitsubishi i-MIEV and Mini E don’t have it all their own way by tapping into buyers who’re put off models such as the G-Wiz by their let’s be charitable – clumsy and somewhat fragile appearance.
Not quite but it feels like it. The zero-emissions company started in 1991. Ford bought into it in the late 1990s, poured in around £90m, then in 2003 decided electric cars didn’t have much future and cast Th!nk adrift. Its current Norwegian owner, probably offended at seeing all that time and money going to waste, bought the firm in 2006. This car is the result.
The answer is yes... and no. Beneath, the torsion beam at the back and MacPherson strut front suspension that was developed by Ford remains. The shape isn’t vastly different either and it retains the original notion of steel bottom half, aluminium frame at the top. But Th!nk employs its own engineering team and the car has evolved, particularly the bodywork and powertrain.
This is going to sell for around £15,000 so bearing in mind the cost of battery propulsion it’s not overly expensive. Inside, the steering wheel is from a US Ford Focus and electric window buttons and instruments are also recognisably Ford while the ventilation is Peugeot and the stereo an aftermarket Blaupunkt affair. Obviously it would be nice if it felt a bit more premium but beggars, choosers and all that.
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Batty says
RE: Th!nk City (2009) electric CAR review
@atomic- Why anyone would laugh at another's anatomy purely based on their choice of vehicle is beyond me. @MPI- excellent points sir!
@atomic- Why anyone would laugh at another's anatomy purely based on their choice of vehicle is beyond me.
@MPI- excellent points sir!
07 September 2009 21:51
morepowerigor says
I suspect there's more cash in that mat black X6 than we're likely to see in a year's Think turnover in a free market. We're supposed to like it, and its probably good for us, but so is cod liver oil. If we must have electric vehicles, the people most likely to make a success of them will be X6 customers and the like kaving them as a 3rd or less car for city scooting, then jumping back in the RS 6, X6, SEC (delete where appropriate) for the blast down to the country house in the west country, Tuscany, Ardèche etc (delete where appropriate?) These cars will not -at this price and size- often be the choice of 1 car families. When lithium ion batteries and their friends really get the energy density up and the price down like MIT and Yale all say they one day will, then Thinks will be really viable. Until then, district nurses (in small districts), health visitors, planning officers and all sorts of similar politically motivated company / fleet purchases will be the only volume out there. At least there's an alternative from Europe for those fools (the choosers, not the users) instead of the Prius.
I suspect there's more cash in that mat black X6 than we're likely to see in a year's Think turnover in a free market.
We're supposed to like it, and its probably good for us, but so is cod liver oil.
If we must have electric vehicles, the people most likely to make a success of them will be X6 customers and the like kaving them as a 3rd or less car for city scooting, then jumping back in the RS 6, X6, SEC (delete where appropriate) for the blast down to the country house in the west country, Tuscany, Ardèche etc (delete where appropriate?)
These cars will not -at this price and size- often be the choice of 1 car families. When lithium ion batteries and their friends really get the energy density up and the price down like MIT and Yale all say they one day will, then Thinks will be really viable.
Until then, district nurses (in small districts), health visitors, planning officers and all sorts of similar politically motivated company / fleet purchases will be the only volume out there. At least there's an alternative from Europe for those fools (the choosers, not the users) instead of the Prius.
07 September 2009 20:19
JohnnyBimmer says
Atomic - work out which car is better (Think v X6) on the following criteria; comfort, refinement, space, luxury, power, top speed, acceleration, status, enjoyment, economy, parkability, design inside and out, creature comforts, motorway cruising ability, ownership proposition. Surely you're havin a larf on who you thinks having the last laugh?
07 September 2009 01:27
a t o m i c says
In the real world it's the twats in BMW X6s that get laughed at, not those in horrid G-Wizzers or Th!nk mobiles. I saw a MATTE BLACK BMW X6 in Covent Garden the other day - where do you even begin with such a thing?
06 September 2009 00:41
-Joe- says
Rite I do have a quite a clever little city car, which is alot different to a normal car in my head and on paper, that I hope could change a few things. Obviously their are a few things that need to be sorted out, but I do beleive it could be quite good. Just have to try extra hard in yr13 to get into Coventry then...
28 August 2009 11:22
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