Oslo Beefs Up Electric Car Charging Stations, But Buyers Experience A Backlog
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 08.31.08
Oslo's city government has promised to install 400 electric car charging/parking places over the next four years. Meanwhile Norway's electric car manufacturer THINK is turning out its THINK city cars at the rate of just three per day, which has created a local waiting list 700 customers long.
U.S.$10 gallon gas makes 'el-bil' look good
High prices for jet fuel may have made rap star Diddy ground his private jet for the moment, but Europeans and especially Norwegians are finding it hard to break the driving habit. Perhaps because their economy is still fairly strong, some Norwegians are choosing to supplement their already fuel-efficient cars with new hybrid, alternative fuel or all-electric vehicles. Hit the jump for more, including a photo of the all-electric (also Norwegian) Buddy.
400 charging stations by 2011
Currently around 50 charging stations exist in Oslo, and by year's end that number should double, with 100 additional stations being put up between 2009 - 2011. At the same time, THINK will try to ramp up production from the current three cars to more than 20 cars daily (THINK recently hired a Ford executive as COO). ElbilNorge, another Norwegian electric car company is busy assembling all-electric Buddy cars (originally a Danish design) and plans to make 300 by the end of the year. Both the Buddy and the THINK city get a free pass through Oslo's congestion charging stations. Via ::Aftenposten.no
400 charging stations by 2011
Currently around 50 charging stations exist in Oslo, and by year's end that number should double, with 100 additional stations being put up between 2009 - 2011. At the same time, THINK will try to ramp up production from the current three cars to more than 20 cars daily (THINK recently hired a Ford executive as COO). ElbilNorge, another Norwegian electric car company is busy assembling all-electric Buddy cars (originally a Danish design) and plans to make 300 by the end of the year. Both the Buddy and the THINK city get a free pass through Oslo's congestion charging stations. Via ::Aftenposten.no
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Are the chargers proprietary? They should license the charger design to other car companies so that those that have coming EVs (IE the iMEV, the electric Mini, etc) can sell them in a place with infrastructure via either modified designs to the car or adapters. If it remains TH!NK exclusive, I'd be more than a little upset as a taxpayer, as the company seems to be underperforming in terms of production, and its giving one company a competitive advantage.
I somehow feel sorry for Think Cars. Their first entry into manufacturing cars when theyw ere ownd by Ford was a flop because of low oil prices, never mind that then, as now, the cars were better for the environment. Now, with high oil prices, the govrnment of Norway who own the company have a half-hearted attitude to them. I wish that they would wise up and look at the sheer opportunity that they would have if they sold the car as an urban runabout in the USA. There are many in the larger cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco etc who would buy one of these as a daily commuter. Not many people can afford to buy a $ 80000 Tesla but the $ 30000 Think would definitely sell well if they ever managed to get production up. And, they would have to worry about a bigger backlog than a mere 700 cars.
I wish them the very best. Think have a solution that many (I am happy to include myself in this list) really need, if only they could get it across to them.
I understand that the Th!nk City car will be sold in the U.S., beginning with California late next year. Unfortunately though, you'll have to lease the battery. That just might be a deal-breaker for me. I might just wait for the Volt, or perhaps something better than that.
I plan to buy an electric vehicle as soon as 40 miles of range on rolling terrain carrying two people is reasonably priced. But when I buy, I am going to buy the whole car. I read the same thing John did, that Th!nk would be doing a mandatory lease on the battery pack. I won't rent (lease) the battery pack. I'd be put in jail when the lease was up and they tried to take back their battery and leave me with an expensive lawn ornament. Seems too much like an EV1 kind of arrangement to me.
Battery leasing gets around the weak link in the electric car. The battery is the unreliable piece, and if you want to take a cross country road trip, you can only do it if you can swap out your battery periodically at filling stations along the way. Not a difficult proposition if the car and battery swapping robot are correctly designed.
Remember when mobile phones were only for the rich (before cellular)? Everyone has one now. The same can be done with electric cars.