Think Announces U.S. Factory Plans
Norway’s pioneering electric car maker, Think, plans to open a new manufacturing plant and technical center in the United States.
Photo: Think.no
The company is currently in discussions with eight states, including Michigan, hoping to host the facility, which will initially employ about 300 workers with a starting capacity of 16,000 cars per year. The technical center will provide jobs for another 70 engineers and electric drive specialists. Plans ultimately call for up to 900 employees and a capacity of 60,000 electric vehicles per year.
“The U.S. is quickly overtaking Europe as an attractive market for EVs and is an ideal location to engineer and build EVs,” said Think CEO Richard Canny. “We see ourselves playing a small but potentially growing role in re-inventing the U.S. auto industry by bringing back new manufacturing jobs to the U.S. to replace internal combustion engine vehicles that are expensive to operate and maintain with clean, efficient electric vehicles.”
Canny and other officials from the company’s subsidiary, Think North America, are in Ann Arbor this week meeting with representatives from the state of Michigan and seven other states to discuss options to bring electric vehicle manufacturing jobs to the U.S. The program includes a ride-and-drive event with the production level version of the TH!NK city electric car presently on sale in Europe.
Think North America also plans to apply for low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, which was created in 2007 to help develop U.S. production capabilities for the highly fuel-efficient vehicles needed to meet long-range energy security and environmental challenges.
About Think
Think designs, develops, manufactures and markets environmentally friendly vehicles and technologies. Think has been developing and producing urban mobility solutions since the early 1990’s. In 2008, the company launched the TH!NK city, the latest generation electric vehicle designed and engineered by Think. Think vehicles are designed to be smart, flexible and continuously updated to deliver state-of-the-art urban mobility. Currently, the company operates production facilities in Aurskog, Norway with a plant capacity of 5,000 units per shift (max. 16,000 units/year).
Read more on: Think.no.
