EV Technology In The North: Taking Off?
A week after we reported on the THINK City the Norwegians announce that the top US cities in which they are going to roll out the THINK City are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York. To top things off they are working with AeroVironment, Inc. to develop a fast charging system which loads the car in 15 minutes, and these fifteen minutes give you a 80% charge. That makes long distance travel with the THINK City possible, given that the charging stations are many and placed at the right locations.
In other news, Better Place, the company which is working on creating the infrastructure for your EV with switchable batteries, announced that they secured USD 350m in a series B round, and have now HSBC, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Lazard Asset Management among their investors. That gives Better Place a value of USD 1,25 billion, which should give them the funds to develop and roll out their technology. They aim to have their solution ready for 2011 in Denmark, so we can be sure to see some of that money flow to the country on the Jutland peninsula.
THINK Has Your EV Car Ready. Now.
THINK is not a start-up anymore, though it was one in the beginning of the 1990s when the world experienced a similar recession. Their history is fascinating, with USD 150m invested by US car giant Ford during the companies ownership of the Norwegians, struggling after Ford sold them out in 2003, until in 2006 Norwegian Investinor and other investors bought the company. Under new management and with new strategic goals the company is ready to become a major player in the growing electric vehicle market.
Their vision is to provide a better way of moving, which is carbon and carefree. The result of their vision is an electric city car with a Scandinavian design and modern technology under the hood. The THINK City is manufactured in Finland by Valmet Automotive, who is also a shareholder and strategic partner. It seems the Finns are establishing themselves slowly but surely as a major player in the EV manufacturing segment, a very smart decision. But back to THINK.
Finnish Electric Vehicle Industry Speeds Up
The revolution on transportation industry starts speeding up also in Finland and other Nordic countries. Electricity, if produced by renewable energy (like wind, solar, hydro or nuclear power), could provide the needed low emission power source for transportation industry.
Earlier this summer, Swedish Volvo and state-owned Vattenfall launched a joint venture for plug-in hybrids to market by 2012: the target is to develop a hybrid car for households which could be charged from a common household electric outlet in about five hours ( a press release). On May, City of Copenhagen and Better Place launched a plan to build up an electric vehicle pilot project with electric-car reharging infrastructure (with battery-switching stations) in Copenhagen Region (a press release). US based Better Place has been partnered globally with Renault-Nissan and will create a battery-switching station network allowing drivers to charge with five minutes.
Fisker Karma To Challenge Tesla Model S
When talking about car manufacturing, one normally thinks of Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the USA. Finland, on the other hand, comes seldom to one's mind. That much more interesting it is to see that a plug-in hybrid is build right here in Finland, the Fisker Karma.
The Karma is, as Fisker puts it, "a beautiful and environmentally friendly car for people who do not want to compromise luxury". The car uses a small gasoline engine which turns the generator that charges the lithium ion battery pack, which powers the car in normal use. You can configure the car so that it comes with a solar roof which helps to charge the car. The car drives 80 km before it starts to run on gasoline, and it seats four plus sufficient place for luggage. Finally, the design is beautiful, and conveys the image of speed and luxury.
Valmet Automotive is the company building the car in Finland. Valmet signed the deal with Fisker Automotive in November 2008 and production will start an the end of 2009. Their plan is to reach a volume of 15.000 cars per year, while the contract between Valmet and Fisker runs for several years. The reason that Valmet was chosen over their competitors was the quality and speed necessary to reach Fisker's production goals, and because more than half of Fisker's sales are expected outside of North America: Valmet represents an ideal international foothold, according to Fisker Automotive CEO, Henrik Fisker.
