Ben Preiss
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 Norwegian "Think" Car With Wi-Fi, Internet It’s not just a car it’s a concept: every car will be Internet and Wi-Fi enabled. The cars will be sold off of the Internet, not from lots, and not a single car will be assembled until it is sold. Think CEO Jan-Olaf Willums has attracted major investors and active interest including Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, who wants to put his Stirling engine in the car to increase its flexibility and range up to hundreds? of miles.  Willums's pitch is this: He's not just selling an electric car; he's upending a century-old automotive paradigm, aiming to change the way cars are made, sold, owned, and driven. Because each vehicle is Internet-ready, you can text-message your vehicle to, say, check its battery charge. The City will e-mail you when it's time for it to be serviced. "If someone has a great idea for a software link to the Think, we say bring it," Willums says. "It's the users who come up with those features. We just give them the platform."
Think plans to sell the car but lease the battery as a way to overcome one of the biggest conundrums of electric cars. The battery is by far the most expensive component of the City, which will list for about $34,000 in Norway. Take the battery out of the equation, and Willums says he can sell the car for about $15,000 to $17,000 in the United States, with a "mobility fee" of $100 to $200 a month that might also include services like insurance and wireless Internet access.
(money.cnn)References: madville, money.cnn Comment: on The Electric Car That Thinks It Can |
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