THINK joins Basque Country eco car-sharing consortium

Pioneering Scandinavian electric vehicle (EV) maker, THINK, and its distribution partner in Spain, Going Green, have teamed up with a consortium in the Basque Country to provide citizens of Ataun with a totally carbon free car-sharing scheme in the city.

Up to 15 THINK City EVs will be available in Ataun as part of the project, named Sarecar, and thanks to the consortium partners – made up of organisations such as Iberdrola, one of the largest utility companies in Europe; Kutxa, a Basque Country savings group; Diputacion Guipuzkoa, the regional government office and Ayuntamiento de Ataun, the city council – several new EV charging stations are being installed at key locations around the city.

The new charging stations are being erected around the region by consortium partner Iberdrola, and thanks to technical innovations made by the utilities giant, all will be powered using 100% renewable energy sources.

Iberdrola president, Sanchez Galan, said: “When the programme is launched in October, we aim to prove that the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles is not just a dream.”

THINK CEO, Richard Canny, added: “Spain is a growing market for electric vehicles, and thanks to our in-country partner, Going Green, we have been able to establish a footprint here in the last year.  Now that we have introduced air-conditioning to the THINK City as well, we expect this footprint to grow in the coming months, with increasing sales in the key cities of Madrid and Barcelona and now, thanks to this excellent, totally carbon free car-share project from Sarecar, we are making in-roads into the Basque Country as well.”

“We are proud and impressed with the level of commitment to this new scheme and with the calibre of the partners getting involved on such a large scale,” he concluded.

The latest generation THINK City is a purpose-built, all-electric and fully air-conditioned urban car that can travel at highway speeds and cover 160 kilometers on a single charge (via conventional household outlet), with zero local emissions. It is the world’s first EV to be granted certification with the European CE conformity mark and EU homologation requirements (M1 certificate). To achieve these exacting standards, the THINK City has successfully completed very thorough testing and validation procedures.

European production of the THINK City continues in Finland with manufacturing partner Valmet Automotive, which also assembles the Boxster and Cayman models for Porsche AG, and deliveries are taking place across Europe in selected key EV markets such as The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

THINK also recently announced plans to establish a U.S. production facility during 2011 in Elkhart County, Indiana, and is working with Japanese partner Itochu on developing operations in Asia.