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- Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Kleiner Perkins To Bring Tiny Norwegian Electric Car Think To US

We have been covering Norway's Think Global for some time. Our sense has been that the tiny electric powered vehicle might be great for Europe but that the SUV-lovin' USA won't go for it. But with gas going at $4 a pop, we can see 50K people buying these things in the US, if only to hand off to their kids.

Kleiner Perkins today let everyone know that they are backing Think, although they are not saying how much cash they have put in. Kleiner does say that they plan to sell as much as 50K Think vehicles per year at $30K per head. So this would seem to be a very significant investment.

Think plans to sell an emission-free, 95% recyclable car with a top speed of 65 miles an hour. The bummer is that you can expect to pay $30K for one of these. We had priced a Smart car recently which comes in at a much lower price. Granted, its not as green but the Smart car is much, much less of a pain in the ass. The company says it is negotiating with US utility companies to set up fueling stations to charge the cars. Think's battery demands 3 full hours to recharge if plugged in daily, or 8 hours if the battery is drained. Ouch.

So who's in charge here? Former Oracle heavy Ray Lane is now the chairman of Think.

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