Think announced today it would deliver 17 vehicles to Duke Energy and Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) company. Duke will receive 10 vehicles, while the rest will go to IPL. Together with the two companies, Think will research the data which will give it a better understanding on the requirements created by the deployment and use of electric cars as part of Project Plug-IN.
“Electric utilities and their employees are a natural extension of our fleet strategy,” said Think spokesperson Brendan Prebo.
“By targeting electric utilities in the early deployment of EVs, we can help address several important challenges to the successful commercialization of these cars, such as establishing residual values for batteries, the cost of installing infrastructure and understanding the local impact of charging networks on the grid. Electric utilities are impacted by all of these issues, not only as customers, but also as fuel and service providers.”
The models produced in the US use locally sourced lithium-ion batteries. The electric system of the car gives it a top speed of 100 km/hour (62 mph) and allows for a sprint time from naught to 62 mph of 6.5 seconds. During summer and with the heater off, Think City has a range of in between 170 km (105 miles) and 203 km (126 miles).
Currently, a retail network is under review, with the cities that will be the first to receive the EV to be announced this year. Think targets a sales figure of 2,500 units of the model in 2011.
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