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January 09, 2008
Electric Cars Move Money
In its latest VentureCast newsletter, Library House highlighted some of last year's larger VC rounds. One of them was Think Nordic, the Norwegian electric car company, which received over €60M in two rounds of funding.
(Image source: Think)
It was not the only electric car venture to move capital last year. Just after Christmas, the news came out that Bolloré (French battery company) and Pininfarina (Italian auto design firm) are together investing €150M in a joint venture to manufacture a 100% electric car.
Pininfarina designs cars for Alfa Romeo (see the Brera above) but also for Ford (coupe shown here), and for Ferrari, among others. The plan for the JV is to use a new Lithium Metal Polymer battery developed by the Bolloré Group. We tried to get a photo of the new automobile but the press office declined, saying that it is not revealing the auto yet.
(Image source: Pininfarina)
Planned Features for French/Italian EV
- 250KM city driving range
- zero to 50 km/h in 4.9 seconds),
- acceleration sufficient to overtake other vehicles "safely"
- top speed: 130 km/h
- automatic
- standard electrical outlet for recharging
- charge time: five hours
- five-minute charge : 25 km reach
- Production capacity: 15,000 cars a year (dependent on Bollorés capacity to produce battery)
Sales are planned to begin in Europe, the United States and Japan beginning in 2010.
Think Nordic envisions full-scale production will begin in 2008, according to Library House. According to its website, the Think car will use battery tech from Tesla Motors.
View Pinninfarina
View Think Nordic
Posted on January 9, 2008 01:28 PM | Posted to Alternative Energy | Permalink
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