Think Recharging With Big Funds for Electric Vehicles?
Even if you’ve got a fully developed electric car, it still takes a lot of capital to get it on the road. The latest news is that Think Global AS, maker of the highway certified two-seater electric car TH!NK city, is looking to raise a third round of funding in the neighborhood of $80 million to increase production capacity, VentureWire reports (via PEHub.)
Of all electric car startups, Think has had some of the biggest names circling its little electric cars. Once owned by Ford, the company was bought by Norwegian investors from solar giant REC, and it has since partnered with GE to help put A123 lithium-ion batteries in their cars. Think also brought on Porsche Consulting to help design its manufacturing plant.
That plant, located in Aurskog, Norway, is supposed to produce 1,200 vehicles this year for distribution in Europe and the U.S. with that number jumping up to 10,000 in 2009. In April, Kleiner Perkins and Rockport formed the joint venture Think North America to handle distribution, and the VCs promised hundreds of TH!NK City cars for fleet operators would hit the streets by the end of this year and thousands for consumers next year. We’re still waiting to hear back from Kleiner and RockPort on the status of U.S. distribution.
So who will provide Think the funds this time? Alex Haislip from PeHub has some thoughts and notes that the company has already raised more than $97 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Rockport Capital, GE Energy GE Energy Financial Services’ VC arm, Element Venture Partners, Capricorn Investment Group (Jeff Skoll’s money), Wintergreen Advisers, CG Holdin, Hazel Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Image courtesy of Think Global.
I couldn’t find any mention of the portability of the batteries. What I’d really like to see is an electric car with batteries that can be removed easily for apartment dwellers.
It is much simpler to just convert the cars we have now. That way everyone can save the trouble of having to go buy a new car from a company that will have to overcharge to pay back the loans and try to earn a profit on their investments.
Whenever there is slight demand there is someone who will take advantage.
Just go out and get a guide like Gas2Electric or “Convert It”. Do it yourself. Saves money and gets you on the road before you have to wait for 2050 for the electric car to become a more common car being produced.
Oh, this must be fun!E-cars just can’t wait to try them, looks very good, sounds very exciting that’s what they are to me.