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Think Global was a pioneering Norwegian-U.S. private electric automobile manufacturer that focused on designing and producing compact, zero-emission city cars under the TH!NK brand, operating as one of the earliest entrants in the modern consumer EV market in the 1990s and 2000s.
Key moments
December 1991Founded as a private automotive firm
March 2011Halted production of its flagship Th!nk City electric vehicle model
June 22, 2011Filed for bankruptcy, marking its fourth insolvency proceeding over 20 years of operation
Late 2011Purchased by new owner Electric Mobility Solutions AS post-bankruptcy
August 2012All remaining vehicle production and operational activities permanently ceased
Think Global competed in the niche compact urban electric vehicle segment at a time when nearly all major legacy automakers had not yet launched mass-produced battery electric models. Its primary early peers were other small, specialized EV startups such as India's REVA, before facing much stiffer competition when major auto corporations rolled out mass market EV lines including the Nissan Leaf. Though it had a head start designing purpose-built all-electric platforms rather than modifying existing internal combustion engine cars, repeated financial crises and limited production scale made it impossible for the firm to keep pace with better-resourced competitors.
Possessed significant early-mover advantage in dedicated 100% electric city car design, years ahead of most mainstream automakers' EV programs
Recurring cycles of bankruptcy over two decades gradually eroded consumer, investor and supplier trust in the brand
Lacked the economies of scale and large supply chain support that allowed later EV market entrants backed by established automotive groups to lower costs and expand distribution
Think Global’s TH!NK brand occupies a unique pioneering position in the global history of consumer electric vehicles, emerging as one of the first dedicated zero-emission compact car marques to gain regulatory approval and full road certification across key European and North American markets at a time when the broader global auto industry widely dismissed mass EV adoption as impractical for everyday consumers. The brand built early credibility among urban mobility advocates, environmental policymakers, and early EV enthusiasts by prioritizing purpose-built EV platform engineering rather than retrofitting existing internal combustion engine models, creating a distinct niche that set it apart from both legacy automakers exploring small-scale EV test fleets and low-volume low-speed neighborhood EV manufacturers of the era.
While the firm ceased full operations before the 2020s global mass market EV boom, its legacy as an early trailblazer has cemented its reputation as a critical case study for sustainable automotive brand development, with residual brand recognition among long-time EV industry stakeholders and low-carbon mobility communities that persists decades after its peak production period.
The brand’s long-term influence extends well beyond its small total production output, as many of its early engineering and market exploration efforts laid partial groundwork for the regulatory frameworks and consumer acceptance of compact urban electric vehicles that emerged across the 2010s.
Brand Leadership
Score: 72/100
As one of the earliest dedicated mass-market consumer EV brands, Think Global held clear category leadership in the niche urban compact electric vehicle segment during the 2000s, outpacing most legacy automakers in delivering fully certified road-legal battery electric cars for retail sale to everyday consumers rather than limited test fleet deployments.
Consumer & Stakeholder Interaction
Score: 61/100
The brand cultivated a loyal small community of early EV adopters, municipal city fleet operators, and clean energy advocacy groups that shared targeted feedback on vehicle design and urban mobility use cases, though it never achieved broad mainstream consumer engagement due to its limited production volumes and constrained marketing budget.
Brand Growth Momentum
Score: 45/100
The brand experienced periodic short-term spikes in media and industry attention following major vehicle launches and new regional market entry announcements, but repeated operational disruptions and financial setbacks eliminated sustained positive growth momentum across its full operating lifecycle.
Brand Operational Stability
Score: 32/100
Think Global faced repeated ownership changes, extended production halts, and insolvency proceedings across its nearly two decades of operation, creating inconsistent brand visibility and product availability that gradually eroded long-term stakeholder confidence over time.
Brand Operating Tenure & Legacy Depth
Score: 68/100
Active from the early 1990s through the early 2010s, the brand accumulated 16 years of continuous operational heritage in the EV space, predating nearly all contemporary mass-market EV marques and establishing a lasting legacy as a pioneering trailblazer for the modern zero-emission auto sector.
Industry Category Profile
Score: 76/100
Operating in the high-growth, high-sustainability global electric vehicle segment that has become one of the most strategically important categories in the global automotive industry, the brand’s alignment with long-term low-carbon mobility trends gives it outsized residual industry relevance relative to its small total production scale.
Global Market Reach
Score: 54/100
The brand successfully secured vehicle certifications and launched limited sales across 12 national markets spanning Western Europe and North America, but never achieved broad distribution across major global auto markets including East Asia and Latin America before ceasing core vehicle production operations.
All brand value assessments referenced for Think Global are generated via AI-powered analytical reasoning based on public historical operational records, industry context, and documented stakeholder legacy data, and all illustrative value figures are provided strictly for contextual reference. No figures presented here constitute a formal audited brand valuation. For official, fully audited brand valuation reports and verified quantitative assessments, please contact the World Brand Lab directly.
Automotive
products
Electric cars
num employees
125+
parent
Ford (1999–2003)
KamKorp (2003–2006)
InSpire (2006–2011)
brands
Think City
Think Global was a Norwegianelectric car manufacturer located in Bærum, which manufactured cars under the TH!NK brand.Production of the Think City was stopped in March 2011 and the company filed for bankruptcy on June 22, 2011, for the fourth time in 20 years.[1] The company was bought soon after by Electric Mobility Solutions AS and production ceased in August 2012 with no more announcements regarding future production.[2][3] As of October 2010, a total of 2,500 units had been manufactured at Oslo-based TH!NK's production facility.[4]
The Ford TH!NK was a line of electric vehicles produced by TH!NK Mobility, then an enterprise of the Ford Motor Company.The short-lived line included four models: the TH!NK Neighbor and the TH!NK City, small electric automobiles, and the TH!NK Bike Traveler and the TH!NK Bike Fun, electric-powered motorized bicycle.Ford sold its stock, and the resulting company, Think Global, produced electric cars in Norway until declaring bankruptcy in 2011.[5][6][7]
History
The company was founded in January 1991 in Bærum, as "Pivco" (for Personal Independent Vehicle Company).The first practical prototype, the PIV2, like the vehicles that followed, were built around a chassis made of aluminum and carrying a body made of polyethylenethermoplasticrotomolded in one piece.The chassis were developed by Hydro Aluminium Tonder in Tønder in Denmark and were one of the main reasons that Ford later acquired 51% of the stock.[8] 10 of 15 prototypes were built in time for the LillehammerOlympic Winter Games in 1994.The battery technology was NiCd, driving a three-phaseAC induction motor via the front wheels.
The PIV2 was followed by the PIV3, the City Bee (Citi in the US), introduced in 1995.120 of these were produced, 40 of which participated in the San Francisco Bay AreaStation Car Demonstration project from 1995 to 1998.
Based on the experiences from the prototypes, Pivco then went on to develop their first true production model, PIV4, later called the TH!NK, with Lotus Cars
Models
Ford TH!NK City
The two door Think City could seat a driver and a passenger and had a top speed of 56 mph. The car had an acceleration speed of zero to 30 mph in seven seconds and weighed 2,075 pounds.The model was 9.8 ft long, 5.25 ft wide, and 5.1 ft high.[34]
TH!NK Neighbor
The Neighbor (part of Ford Th!nk) was designed to meet the NHTSA specification for Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. Design and manufacture was unrelated to the Th!nk City. The Neighbor was initially offered in two models, a two-seater and a four-seater, with a two-passenger utility truck version offered near the end of production. The TH!NK Neighbor had a fixed roof over an open enclosure; a rain cover was optionally available to protect the passengers from the elements.
The normal top speed was governed to 25 mph per NHTSA requirements, and it also had a "turf" mode that set its maximum speed at 15 mph for golf course use. Many options were designed for use on the golf course: it featured a bag rack, a holder for scorecards, tees, and balls, and a club washer. Additionally, there was a trunk option for the four-passenger version that could double as a cooler. Overall, 7,162 total units were produced for the 2002 model year. 2,268 P20 (2 seater), 863 P21 (utility) and 4,031 P22 (4 passenger) units were built.
TH!NK city
See also
Electric car
Electric car use by country
List of modern production plug-in electric vehicles
The basic construction concept from the prototypes was retained, except that the roof was made of ABS plastic, and the lower frame chassis elements were made of steel.
The production model had a range of 85 km (modified ECE101 cycle) between charges, and a top speed of 90 km/h.[9]
Development took more time and resources than anticipated, so when development of the production model was finished in 1999, finances had dried up. The company was then acquired by Ford, who could start production of the TH!NK City.Ford even embraced the TH!NK concept, and marketed electrically driven bicycles as well as golf carts under the same brand.
The TH!NK city Electric Vehicle (EV) Demonstration Program Project was initiated late 2001, and completed in April 2005. US. Partners include Federal, State and Municipal agencies as well as commercial partners. Phase I, consisted of placement of the vehicles in demonstration programs, and it was completed in 2002. Phase II, the monitoring of these programs was completed in 2004. Phase III, the decommissioning and/or exporting of vehicles concluded in 2005. Phase I - the Program successfully assigned 192 EV's with customers (including Hertz) in the state of California, 109 in New York (including loaner and demo vehicles), 16 in Georgia, 7 to customers outside of the US and 52 in Ford's internal operations in Dearborn, Michigan for a total of 376 vehicles. Phase II – the monitoring of the operational fleet was ongoing and completed in 2004, and all vehicles were returned throughout 2004 and 2005. The Department of Energy (DOE) was involved with the monitoring of the New York Power Authority / TH!NK Clean Commute Program units through partnership with Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (ETEC), which filed separate reports to DOE. The remainder of the field fleet was monitored through Ford's internal operations. Vehicles were retired from lease operation throughout the program for various operator reasons. Some of the vehicles were involved in re-leasing operations. At the end of the program, 376 vehicles had been involved, 372 of which were available for customer use while 4 were engineering prototype and study vehicles. At the end of leases, City vehicles have been decommissioned and/or exported to KamKorp in Norway.By April 2005, the last of the City vehicles had been returned and processed or exported to Norway.[10]
Production ceased in 2002, after 1,005 units had been made. Many of these cars participated in station car projects in California and in New York City.
Probably due to changes in the California zero-emissions vehicle policy, Ford gave up THINK on January 31, 2003.The company was sold to KamKorp, owned by Indian businessman Kamal Siddiqi.[11] Development of a successor to the City was subsequently halted.The used cars from US and UK have been re-exported[12] to Norway where they are in high demand due to the government's policy to promote the use of electrical cars (EVs are exempt from taxes, have free parking, pass toll roads for free, and are allowed to drive in the bus lanes avoiding traffic congestion).
A controversy erupted when Ford decided to crush off-lease TH!NK City cars stockpiled in the U.S. After protesting by environmentalist groups, including a Greenpeace rally on the roof of Ford's Norway offices, Ford decided to ship the excess vehicles to Norway.[13]
In 2004, the company turned its attention to development of the TH!NK public, a micro size electric bus to be rented to customers for inner city travel. By February 2006, prototypes of the vehicle had been developed, but the company went into receivership.
At the end of March 2006, Think Nordic was acquired by Norwegian investment group InSpire, which includes the original founder Jan Otto Ringdal and Jan-Olaf Willums - a Norwegian engineer educated at the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Polytechnic) - as partners. The company was renamed THINK Global.
For the next year, the THINK website showed a restyled "new THINK City" car which was under development. An open version of the car was also pictured but the company said it had no plans to put it into production.
In May 2007, Tesla Motors, maker of the electric Tesla Roadster, announced an agreement to sell 43 million dollars' worth of its Li-ion battery systems to THINK Nordic for use in the next generation THINK City,[14][15] but on 2 November 2007 it backed out of the deal.[16]
The THINK assembly line was restarted in late November 2007 to start manufacturing the re-designed City car.[17]
On March 5, 2008, General Electric, battery manufacturer A123 Systems and THINK Global announced that they had entered a partnership to enable global electrification of transportation. GE invested US$4 million in THINK and $20 million in A123 Systems to help A123 roll out batteries for THINK. A123 Systems and THINK at the same time signed a commercial supply agreement. The partnership was announced at the 78th annual international Geneva Motor Show.[18][19][20]
Also at the 2008 Geneva motor show, THINK unveiled its future five-seater, 130 km/h concept car, the TH!NK Ox.[21]
In July 2008, THINK introduced the THINK City for the first time in the UK.[22]
As of August 2008, some 100 City cars had been manufactured for customers in Norway. It was reported that "the lean plant is ready for efficient production supported by the experts of Porsche Consulting".[23]
On December 15, 2008, THINK suspended all vehicle production and laid off 50% of its staff pending negotiation of up to $29 million in funding for working capital, citing "urgent financial distress."[24][25]
As of January 13, 2009, THINK Global received a bridge loan of 40 million Norwegian kroner (~$5.69 million) to continue operation.[26] Much of that bridge loan came from one of its battery suppliers, EnerDel.
On August 27, 2009, THINK announced a successful recapitalization ($47 million) through existing and new investors, which allowed the company to exit court protection and resume normal business operations in terms of manufacturing and sales of the THINK City EV in Europe. Announced investors included battery manufacturer EnerDel in U.S. (31%); US venture capital firms RockPort Capital Partners (Boston); Element Partners (Philadelphia) and Kleiner Perkins (Palo Alto, CA) as well as Valmet Automotive based in Finland and Investinor (the venture capital sovereign fund of Norway).[27] On the same day, the company also announced that the THINK City electric car would be produced in Valmet later that year. The deal also included engineering. Valmet invested around €3 million ($4.27 million) to the project,[28] and became a minor shareholder of the company.
Production of the THINK City car at Valmet Automotive started on December 10, 2009, in Uusikaupunki, Finland.[29]
On January 5, 2010, THINK announced plans to manufacture the THINK City in Elkhart, Indiana beginning in 2011.[30]
On April 6, 2010, THINK announced plans to begin selling the THINK City in the U.S. in 2010.[31]
On December 2010, the first 15 THINK electric cars made in the Elkhart, Indiana, assembly plant were delivered to its customer – the state of Indiana – for government fleet use.This marks the first time that an American-made electric vehicle with Lithium-ion batteries has been purchased for U.S. fleet operation. The vehicles delivered were the THINK City model, which is a pure electric vehicle that produces zero emissions and is capable of traveling as far as 100 mi on a single charge.
"Our delivery today is part of a larger effort to help transform the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet from one that is mostly dependent on imported oil, to one that is fueled entirely by domestically produced electric energy," said Barry Engle, THINK CEO. Engle continued, "As part of that goal, we've made a strategic decision to target initially the many millions of fleet vehicles in operation in the U.S. market…These fleets can jumpstart vehicle electrification in America's cities and help push the industry past early adopters into mainstream consumer markets."[32]
Production of the Th!nk City was stopped in March 2011 and the company filed for bankruptcy on June 22, 2011, for the fourth time in 20 years.[1]
Think Global's assets were bought by Electric Mobility Solutions AS in July 2011, including shares of wholly owned subsidiaries THINK North America and THINK UK. The new owners announced that production is scheduled to restart in early 2012 with a refined Think City.[33] However, despite such announcements production ceased in August 2012.[2]
The Th!nk City was a small two-seater or 2+2-seater[35] highway capable electric car, with a top speed of 110 km/h and an in-town range of 160 km on a full charge.[22]The Think City is available with either a Zebra Sodium (molten salt battery) battery or a lithium-ion battery, which both travel 100 miles, or 160 kilometres on a full charge, and based on the International Electrotechnical Commission's standards for electric cars.
After a failed start up in Norway in 2008, mass production was restarted in Finland in December 2009.[36]
As of September 2010 the Th!nk City was sold in Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Austria, Switzerland and Finland.[37][38]
It was one of the first three electric cars in the world to be crash-tested and highway-certified, together with the Tesla Roadster (2008) and the Mitsubishi i MiEV.
TH!NK Ox
The TH!NK Ox, presented at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, was a concept five-seater electric car with a top speed of 130 km/h and a 100 kW motor.
The website for the Think Ox, now shut down, listed the top speed as 135 km/h (~84 mi/h) and the range as 250 km (~155 mi).
TH!NK open
TH!NK open was a 3-door, 2-seat concept car, where the roof has been removed. Top speed is 100 km/h, with the following ranges (90 to 203 km):
Range IEC (European standard for calculating range of electrical cars): 170 km (summer tires, heater off)
Range FUDS (American standard for calculating range of electrical cars): 180 km (summer tires, heater off)
Range FUDS winter (typical range in particularly cold conditions) : 90 km /winter tires, constant 4 kW heater
Range EU UDC (range during city driving only): 203 km
