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Think
The reaction to Ford's decision was similar in both America and Norway - skepticism of Ford's motives with a dash of disbelief that the company had really done its best to make 'Think' a success. Environmentalists, especially, have accused Ford, and earlier General Motors, of making no real effort to build and sell electric vehicles. The era of cheap gas ended with a shock when the price of oil rocketed in 1973. Lars Ringdal, who had started the production of bakelite products in Aurskog thought that now was the time to make an energy-efficient small car suitable for driving restricted distances. A prototype with a plastic chassis caused no great excitement, drivers loved their gas-guzzlers regardless of what it cost to run them. But the costs of entry into the automobile industry were more than the eager souls of Aurskog had expected. In 1998 PIVCO ran out of cash. Ringdal and his employees bought the bankrupt company and in a stroke of financial finesse turned around and sold 51% of the company to Ford. The agreement was finalized in 1999 when PIVCO became 'Think Nordic' and the electric car 'Think City' rolled off the assembly line as Ford's solution to the pollution problem. Considering its small size and performance, 'Think City' at $6,500 a pop was not cheap. Governments helped by giving subsidies to buyers but only California backed their interest by buying the actual cars - 40 in a competitive tender - out of a total of 1,000 stateside sales. In Norway, free parking, no value-added or road taxes and toll-free roads have tempted only 400 buyers but in both countries owners are satisfied, and vocal. 'Yahoo' has its own 'Think' discussion group and San Francisco photographer Marc Geller is reported to be planning a demonstration at a local Ford distributor in the city. Demonstrations in San Francisco and nattering on the net will hardly help the 120 unemployed at 'Think Nordic' in Aurskog. Pleas for more government aid have come to naught. Hopes on help from other investors have proved futile and the future looks bleak. One hope remains; As I write, the 120 employees at Think Nordic are offering to take over the company themselves in a last, desperate move to save their jobs, and to keep alive the 'Think' crusade. They insist that there IS a market for an electric car as they wait for Friday, September 27 when the Board meets, hopefully to Think again. Geoffrey K. Ward
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On August 31 2002, the newspaper headlines in Detroit and Oslo reported the same story for perhaps the first time in history - in effect, 'Ford Quits Think'. Cynics might have thought that a proofreader had forgotten a terminal -ing and the 7000 inhabitants of Aurskog were certain he had. They also knew that 'Think' was their very own hope for the future - a viable electric automobile. After investing over $100 million in the project, Ford didn't agree, claiming that there was no market for battery-electric vehicles. An automotive consultant added that the technology was not viable for the mass market. 
A forgotten fragment of automobile history is that a third of American cars built in the first years of the 20th century were electric. In Europe a company in Austria built electric cars between 1898 and 1906. One of their employees developed an electrical system attached to the front wheels - his name, Ferdinand Porsche, went on to greater fame and faster cars. By the twenties the gas-driven automobile had completely taken over the market and for decades, in America at least, gas was cheap and nobody anywhere cared about the environment. 
During the eighties, opposition to pollution, and fears for the ozone layer and global warming, grew more intense. Exhaust emissions were blamed for everything from the fog over Los Angeles to the El Nino effect and critics demanded an alternative to the internal combustion engine. In Aurskog, Lars Ringdal's son, Nils Otto, dusted off the electric car plans and in 1990 established PIVCO. With financial and technical support from Norwegian companies Hydro, Statoil and Oslo Energy a new prototype made its debut at the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer. In 1996, 120 'City Bee' e-cars were produced at Aurskog but both quality and performance were under par. So was back to the drawing board - and a new assembly line funded by government and private investors. 
The same year that Ford invested $25 million in 'Think' (and were to invest a further $100 million in battery development), General Motors cancelled their attempt to produce an electric car market after having spent one billion dollars on the project. Compared to this, Ford's investment was small but its expectations high, as it surveyed California where a 1990 law stated that 10% of all cars sold in California must have zero emissions by year 2003. Here was a 100,000 market waiting for 'Think City' and Ford upped their stake in Norway by purchasing the remainder of 'Think Nordic' shares.  |
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