Cox Washington Bureau
Published on: 04/22/08
Pasadena, Calif. —- The venture capital firm that funded the creation of Google and Amazon.com is trying to jump-start a Norwegian electric car company that has struggled to get off the starting line.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, along with RockPort Capital Partners, said Monday that they will create a company to start selling Think Global's tiny battery-powered cars in the United States in 2009.
The model that Think plans to sell in the United States, called Think City, is emission-free and made from materials that the company claims are 95 percent recyclable.
The cars, whose bodies are primarily recyclable plastic, can reach a top speed of 65 mph and go 110 miles on a single charge, according to Think Global.
Think has been gaining traction in its native Norway, despite stalling in its efforts to get into gear in America and elsewhere. Six years ago, Ford Motor Co. gave up on trying to sell Think electric cars in the United States after investing more than $120 million in the company. Since its founding in 1991, Think and its predecessor companies have had four owners, all of which have struggled.
Kleiner Perkins is betting that high gasoline prices and increased concern about the environment mean the time is right to reintroduce the cars in the United States.
"The transportation industry is undergoing its largest transformation since Henry Ford built the Model T," Kleiner Perkins Managing Partner Ray Lane said in announcing the partnership with Think Global and RockPort at a green business conference here. The new car, he said, "represent(s) a big step toward a zero-emission transportation industry."
According to Lane and Think Global, the car is the only crash-tested, highway-certified electric vehicle ready for mass production.
General Motors last year unveiled its electric-gas hybrid, called the Volt, but hasn't said when it hopes to start selling it.
Other Detroit automakers also are working on electric cars, as are startups such as Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, both based in California.
Think claims 1,200 of its cars are on the road in Norway. But it is expanding its assembly plant near Oslo and plans to produce as many as 10,000 cars per year.
As part of the investment by Kleiner Perkins and RockPort, Think will open an office in Menlo Park, Calif. Lane will become chairman of the new Think North America.
If demand is strong, the partners say, a U.S. manufacturing plant is a possibility.
The company did not say how much the cars would cost in America, but company officials have previously said they want to be able to sell them for less than $20,000.
