This morning at the Michigan Information Technology Center in Ann Arbor, Th!nk finally gave the media the details of it’s planned expansion into the U.S. market. The short version: by 2010, Th!nk North America hopes to be building electric vehicles in the U.S. These City models (seen above) will be able to go around 70 mph, pass all required safety standards and be targeted at fleet customers, initially. Th!nk NA will be submitting a loan application to the Department of Energy on March 31, and its U.S. plans are dependent on getting this money. By that date, Th!nk hopes to narrow its discussions about actually building a production facility down to one or two states (this week, Th!nk is talking with representatives from eight states) and will also know by then exactly how much money they will ask for to build EVs in the U.S. As of today, Th!nk isn’t giving out that number, but thay are saying they could employ up to 900 people and build up to 60,000 electric vehicles a year in the U.S. Price to buy one of these cars? Well, Th!nk officials were hesitant to put a firm number out, but Th!nk CEO Richard Canny said that the price to consumers, after government incentives, would probably be under $20,000, but you’ll need to figure in an $80-90 per month fee to lease the battery.
We’ll have many more details later this afternoon, including the highlights from Th!nk’s slide presentation. For now, you can click through it yourself in the gallery after the jump.
Gallery: Think City in Detroit
[Source: Th!nk]
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, Th!nk (Think), USA
Th!nk details U.S. manufacturing, sales plans: hopes to sell City EV for under $20,000 originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Th!nk details U.S. manufacturing, sales plans: hopes to sell City EV for under $20,000 – Green Cars
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