Electrathon America Forum

electrathon · administrator

Think City

Kyle Keenan · Veteran Member

Wow, had no idea there was such car, here's the wiki for those interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_City

With it being an electric car, does it handle pretty well? How well is distance? Is it electrathon legal ;)

mhodgertt · EA President

The Think is not Electrathon legal. Overall it is fun to drive, comfortable, and gets lots of looks and questions as we drive it around Eugene.

It is a very roomy two person car on the inside--like a 2 seat mini cooper with a large hatch area. The back cargo area can holds2 sets of golf clubs/carts: as many as 6 ice chests with room to spare: one of my 300 lb + students sat in mine and could not believe he had plenty of head, shoulder, hip, leg etc. room. It is taller than most cars so even though it is 1/2 as long as a 'standard' car it is taller so finding it in a parking lot it fairly easy. It comes with air bags, air conditioning, power steering and brakes, anti-lock brakes, traction control, a great stereo (poor speakers though), and all the things you would expect in a 'normal' car. Mine is red as I think Aaron's is. My sister in law's is black. The other color available was light blue. The body is ABS molded plastic that they say will not fade but we will see.

My wife had driven as much as 77 miles on local freeways, roads etc. and had 22% of the battery left so if needed it would go the advertised 100 miles around town. One person picked theirs up in Portland and drove it to Albany and made it on I-5 so about 85 miles on the freeway at ~60 mph but batteries were at 0%. We take turns driving it--who ever is going to go the farthest drives the Think the other takes one of the other 2 (Z-3 for sun and fun and the Volvo SUV for hauling people/things.) WE are still charging it with a 110 volt smart plug in system it came with but will soon buy a 220 battery charging line and hardwire that one to the house. With the 110 it takes from 2 to 14 hours for a 100% charge depending on how low they were when we hooked it up.

From 0 to ~40 it is fairly peppy and accelerates well. After that the acceleration slows but I had it to 68 going down a freeway after about a mile. Since the batteries are under the seat and the motor/transaxle are all very low it corners OK--much like most compacts=--not nearly as well as my Z-3.

I heard about the great deal on Tuesday before PIR race and ordered it on Wednesday morning without checking it out fully and am very glad we did. The company from Norway has gone bankrupt 3 times and is basically out of business. The 'sister' company in Indiana is still trying to make a go of it. The normal price is $34,000 but they shipped 20 of the left over 2011 (Norway) cars to Oregon for $16,000. I think it was to try to get some $$$$ to help keep the company afloat. They even delivered it to Eugene on a flatbed wrecker at no charge. I figure that the 3 year warranty is not worth anything as they might go under at any time. But with a tax credit this year of $7500 the car cost us a total of $8,500. They have now delivered a second set of 20 of these to Portland for the same price which is where Aaron's and my in-laws came from. I have heard there may be more but the price may go up some but I have not followed up on it.

So far we have over 650 miles on it that saved us 33 gallons of gas and since it cost
Anyway great car and if you have any questions feel free to e mail me at my personal email or to the "PRESIDENT" under contact us on the EA web site.
Mike

Kyle Keenan · Veteran Member

Great write-up Mike! Glad to hear it's been a positive experience! Several stores around my neighborhood have power outlets to charge EV's, and it's got me wanting to get an EV. Really not a bad price at all with the tax credit!

electrathon · administrator

I have just over 200 miles on my car. So far it has been a lot of fun. I have people stop me and ask about it all the time.

Mike: Have you ran a ballance on your batteries yet? I left my car at a local guys house with a 240v charger over night and got it to a full charge (till the light turns off) which was the first time it did that. I then drove it for a while and put it on the 120v charger at home. It was the first time it was able to cycle off on the 120v charger.

Also, is your car a US or Norway VIN? My car is #85 US vin code (53) which surprised me to get one with such a low number, but did not hear till a few days ago that some had US and some Norway VIN codes.

Aaron

Zaine Stapleton · Senior Member

Mike and/or Aaron, if I'm in either Eugene or Troutdale could I come try the car out to see what it's like? Promise nothing will happen to it ha ha.

electrathon · administrator

Zaine,

I have let more people drive this car in the last couple weeks than have driven my cars in years. If you are in town stop by and we well go for a ride.

Aaron

Zaine Stapleton · Senior Member

My parents are getting a blue Think City car. They said it should be here in about five weeks or so.

Zaine

Stevie G · Member

Can a guy from GA buy one in OR for the same price, or is that price based on some major State credits?
All the locations listed on their site (Portland not listed) are close to MSRP.

mhodgertt · EA President

I'm not sure if there are any left. Last week there were only 4 black ones left to sell. But the $16,000 is the cash price to buy them when they are delivered. This is because of the bankruptcy that THINK is going into (again) and them wanting to sell the remaining stock before they totally close until they are bought and opened again (hopefully). The $7,500 is a federal tax credit there is not any Oregon tax credit except for up to $750 for a charger. So outside of getting it to GA, I guess you could take deliver of one in Portland Oregon and then pay to have it shipped to GA.