ELKHART, Indiana — The Think City electric car is going to be built in the U.S. in early 2011, the company and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced this week. The Scandinavian company already builds the City in Finland and says it will start selling the Europe-built City in the U.S. later this year, and the City will be on display at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.
Think calls the car "the world's first highway-capable urban EV" and says it will start assembling it in a plant in Elkhart County in about a year. The company will invest $43.5 million to set up production at an existing plant and targets building 20,000 vehicles per year.
The Think City is "designed for urban environments" but has a 100-mile range between charges, the company says. The latest-generation City, built in Finland in a joint venture with Valmet Automotive, started going out to European customers in December. Valmet also builds the Porsche Boxster and Cayman, and production there will continue.
Along with Think, the lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel will manufacture in Indiana. The firm's parent company, Ener1, holds a 31 percent stake in Think. Think is getting incentives from the county and state and funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's ATVM loan program.
Inside Line says: Good news to see more U.S. manufacturing get the nod. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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