AutoblogGreen

1. If this car is put into production, Please THINK, Please..Bring this car to Canada, oh I'm begging you...

Posted at 9:09PM on Mar 4th 2008 by Mark

2. Its an amazing looking car and 120 miles would be perfect. I want one. (hopefully it will be below 35k)

Posted at 9:35PM on Mar 4th 2008 by Nathaniel Sears

3. Finnally this car seem up to specs. When will it be on sale at wal mart?

Posted at 10:18PM on Mar 4th 2008 by A.Brien

4. Between this and the Miev the EV market is starting to look good. Wonder if there is enough interest in the US to warranty shipping this here.

Posted at 11:32PM on Mar 4th 2008 by jake

5. Much nicer looking than their earlier models, great performance too. If priced reasonably should sell well.

I have to question why they took a picture of it on a golf course - do they really want to remind people of golf carts? (grin)

Posted at 11:38PM on Mar 4th 2008 by Chris M

6. Damn...nice car...but 3300lbs????? That's abit heavy...more than a freaking VW GTI!!

Come on Think! You can do better than that.

Posted at 11:48PM on Mar 4th 2008 by armmat

7. Sodium battery?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-sulfur_battery

Doesn't sound likely.

Posted at 1:39AM on Mar 5th 2008 by why not the LS2LS7?

8. Um, no, the alternative battery would be sodium nickle chloride, also known as the Zebra battery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_battery#Zebra_battery

The Zebra also operates at an elevated temperature, but not as hot as the sodium sulfur cells.

Posted at 2:35AM on Mar 5th 2008 by Chris M

9. I only need 2 seats and room for a couple of sacks of groceries. 60 mile range. 60MPH top speed (if it takes 12 seconds to get up to 60, so be it). Under $20K. In the USA. Please.

I don't need a car that seats 5 and weighs 3300lbs. (and I'm guessing it'll cost over $30K)

Posted at 3:17AM on Mar 5th 2008 by infix

10. Chris M:
Your link says 270-350C, mine said 300-350C. Same difference. This doesn't warrant an "um, no".

Makes no difference really. This car will be used with batteries that take two days to heat up and four days to cool down? This doesn't make any sense.

Posted at 3:44AM on Mar 5th 2008 by why not the LS2LS7?

11. "Ox" is a rather unfortunate name for a car, isn't it?

@ why not the LS2/LS7 -

Zebra batteries are well insulated and kept at operating temperature at all times via continuous internal trickle discharge. In Scandinavian winters, Li-ion simply doesn't cut it. Note that outdoor electric outlets for block heaters are common there, these can also be used to recharge EVs.

Posted at 6:44AM on Mar 5th 2008 by rgseidl

12. EV fans may also want to check out the Smera, a new leaning 1+1 seater from France:

http://jalopnik.com/363973/lumeneo-smera-80-mph-ev-gets-geneva-started-down-path-of-weird

Posted at 6:46AM on Mar 5th 2008 by rgseidl

13. The Ox looks good (for a clay model). I sure hope to see it soon on the road in western Europe.

Using the engine oil from a range extender, might be a good way to heat up that NaNiCl battery on cold starts. But sodium just doesn't feel very practical or safe for mobile uses. And it's up to twice as heavy as LiFePO4.

Posted at 7:03AM on Mar 5th 2008 by Aimless

14. Whatever they do, they have to change the name.

Posted at 8:15AM on Mar 5th 2008 by Throwback

15. No sooner do Th!nk annonce this car, than General Electric announce today that they are taking a substantial stake in the company and will be promoting both this model and its little sibling, and using A123 batteries

Posted at 10:09AM on Mar 5th 2008 by David Wright

16. Here is a link to that GE news story -- http://www.rttnews.com/sp/breakingnews.asp?date=03/05/2008&item=82&vid=0

Posted at 10:12AM on Mar 5th 2008 by David Wright

17. Ugly car, but the stats look nice. However, I'm a bit concerned about cost, and here's why. 3,300lbs is a lot of weight. You don't move that kind of weight and still get the ~85Wh/kg that the Aptera gets for its 120 mi range. It's almost certainly going to need at least 20kWh of batteries, possibly as much as 30kWh. When it comes to li-ion, that can currently be summed up in one word: pricey.

If 3,300lbs is the weight of it with Zebra batteries, yes, switching to li-ion will lower the weight some, but not *that* much. Zebras are 90Wh/kg, after all, and automotive li-ions aren't as energy dense as laptop li-ions. You may get, perhaps, 120Wh/kg with them.

I really don't see the point of EVs with Zebra or NiMH batteries. They lose too much energy -- Zebras in maintaining the batteries under charge and keeping them hot, NiMH in waste heat during charge/discharge conditions and in power leakage. If you're wasting half your energy in your batteries, what's the point? You lose the efficiency gains that are the main purpose of electric vehicles.

Posted at 2:28PM on Mar 5th 2008 by KarenRei

18. @Jerry Z
Xebra is an NEV (top speed of 25 or 35 depending on state)
Obvio is not available
Everythign else ZAP does is vaporware.
Exciting my @ss!

Posted at 6:22PM on Mar 5th 2008 by virgil

19. This is great news, in "American":
0-62: 8.5 secs
Top Speed: 80 mph.

Pretty much meets the needs of 99% of the driving public, except for the wacko's at Motor Trend and Motor Week.

Actually, If they could preserve the top speed, I like to see the acceleration drop to 12 seconds, and increase the efficiency, which would increase the INVESTMENT payback period.

Posted at 6:28PM on Mar 5th 2008 by mike

20. Err, 0-60 in 12 seconds, would Decrease the Investment payback period.

Posted at 6:28PM on Mar 5th 2008 by mike