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Think Emerges From Bankruptcy, City EV Ready to Launch

 
1,717 views Aug 27, 2009
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The Th!nkCity takes about four hours to charge and offers a driving range of up to 120 miles

The Th!nkCity takes about four hours to charge and offers a driving range of up to 120 miles

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The saga of the Think City EV has turned a new page.

During the recent financial meltdown, the small Norwegian electric car maker had to enter bankruptcy protection though buoyed in part by investments from EnerDel, the US-based battery maker that would be supplying lithium-ion cells for the car.

It wasn't clear if the Think City small EV would ever come to fruition even though prototypes exist.

Today, however, the automaker has announced it has survived bankruptcy re-organization and is ready to resume production of the Think City.

The 2 seater will be built in Finland at the Valment assembly plant who is also announced as a new investor. Valment currently builds the Porsche Boxter and will build the Fisker Karma. The facility is capable of prudcing several hundred thousand EVs per year.

Battery make EnerDel will have a 31% stake in the new company.

The Think City is a low-cost EV with a 112 mile range and a 60 mph top speed. Deliveries to customers are expected "this side of 2010" per Think CEO Richard Canny. There are plans for sales of the car in the USA.

PRESS RELEASE:

THINK EXITS COURT PROTECTION AND PLANS TO RESUME NORMAL OPERATIONS WITH PRODUCTION OF THE READY-TO-MARKET TH!NK CITY

* DEBT SETTLEMENT PLAN APPROVED
* CAPITAL INCREASE OF $47m
* NEW INVESTORS NAMED
* NEW EUROPEAN PRODUCTION LOCATION IDENTIFIED

OSLO, Norway, 27 August 2009 – Think, the Norwegian electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer announces today that the Norwegian courts have approved its debt settlement plan, enabling the company to exit court protection. Effectively, this puts Think back in business and in a position to resume normal operations in terms of the manufacture and sale of new electric vehicles (EVs), namely, its latest TH!NK City model.

Think CEO Richard Canny said: “This court ruling completes the final step in our return to normal operations. It is an important day for Think, and we would like to thank our creditors and suppliers for their continued support, and to show our appreciation to Think’s very patient and loyal customers – this means we can re-start production of the TH!NK City as soon as possible.”

The TH!NK City is the company’s latest generation EV, and is one of the few ready-to-market fully electric vehicles available in the world today. With its market-leading 180km range, class-leading 100km/h performance and safety attributes, the TH!NK City is the first vehicle of its type to be granted pan-European regulatory safety approval and CE certification.

A significant capital increase has also been arranged to enable the company to immediately get back to the business of producing and selling EVs. The company continues to be backed by a very loyal group of investors, made up of some individual Norwegian investors as well as leading venture capital and clean-tech investment firms from the USA and the UK.

In addition, some new investors have joined the shareholder group as part of the capital increase, which is worth some $47 million in total capital introduced and conversion of interim financing to equity. The equity transaction is scheduled to close next week.

Named investors are: Ener1, Inc. from the USA, Valmet Automotive from Finland and Investinor, the Norwegian Government-backed investment fund.

Ener1, Inc. is the largest of the investors in Think, and once the transaction is complete, will hold an equity stake in the company of approximately 31%. Ener1, Inc. is the parent company of EnerDel, a leading manufacturer of advanced lithium-ion automotive battery systems based in Indianapolis and an existing supplier to Think.






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Comments (4)

  1. By Jason M. Hendler Posted: 8/27/2009 9:46am PDT

    I wonder what effect Valmet's ownership of / partnership with Th!nk has on their contracts with Fisker Automotive.
     
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  2. By Chris O Posted: 8/27/2009 10:04am PDT

    Note that the Think City has already been in production before and exported to several countries. In the Netherlands one could probably still pick one up today out of batch of 150 units that were exported to the this country earlier this year. One would have to bring $ 50000 though...
     
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  3. By  answers Posted: 8/12/2010 2:34pm PDT

    How to get a creditor to make the deal you want
    You have the natural advantage in debt settlement, because you have something the creditor wants. Don't cave in when they first tell you no. Maintain calm. Don't lose it and get angry. It's usually best to correspond with them via letters, so you have a paper trail of all your actions. Keep the attitude at all times that the collection agency will take less money then they say they will.
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    To give you some background, most bad debt companies pay or receive literally pennies on the dollar for the debts on which they are trying to collect. The amount that companies pay for bad debt depends on the type of account and its age:
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    •Accounts that are slightly older and on which a collection agency or two has already taken a whack: 1.5 cents to 2 cents on the dollar.
    •Years-old, out-of-statute debts: A penny or less.
     
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  4. By  answers Posted: 8/13/2010 4:28pm PDT

    The problem with consumer debt is that it must be paid off by the sweat of your brow. Clothes and food and dishes and kitchen gadgets and “stuff” all depreciate rapidly. In most cases, you’d be lucky to get pennies on the dollar when you tried to resell your stuff, even if it was barely used.
    Cars depreciate, too, but not nearly as fast as consumer goods.
    This is a unique quality of consumer debt when compared to secured debt. Debt that is secured can usually be cleared by simply selling whatever was used to secure the debt.
    The Problem with Consumer Debt
    Consumer debt, on the other hand, cannot be cleared by selling the items you purchased. Unfortunately, you will have to work off the debt — or settle it, or declare bankruptcy. And none of those is much fun.
     
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