ELECTRIC CAR - OUR FIRST THREE WEEKS!

Our Think City car finally arrived on June 15th.  I got a ride to the dock and had no trouble getting it from Matson and with only a little trouble getting the sequence right, I got it started.  because the car had not been charged in a month I was a little concerned that the battery may have self discharged but it still had 80%.  Driving home was uneventful and I still had over 50% when I got home.  Like most electrics this car has only one speed but the "shift lever" does have, in addition to drive, an econ position which limits the amperage draw and the top speed in order to get the best range.  I, of course, choose econ and found it completely satisfactory on our hilly 55 mph limit highway.

As you can see, the Think is noticeably narrower
than our Subaru and a lot shorter.  It is a two seater
with a large space in back with rear hatch and the 22kw
li-ion battery is under both the seats and most of the rear
space.


The Think brand has had a difficult life of high 
hopes followed by bankruptcies.  At one time 
Ford owned it, in 2011 it was back under 
Scandinavian ownership with an American
division assembling cars in Elkhart, Indiana.
Such a small car at a premium price was a 
hard sell here so they bankrupted the American
division and sold the European division.  We
learned the 100 or so cars remaining were being 
sold at steep discounts.  Since here on Hawaii, 
where no dealers sell electric cars, we would 
need to service our own car anyway we were 
more willing than most to risk an "orphan" car
brand.  
    

Myrna started using the Think for her commute the next day and after the battery was cycled a couple times it did even better.  She now uses about 30% of the charge for each round trip, about 10% down to Hilo and 20% back up to Hakalau.  Saturday we made a trip to a potluck at about 2,000' up a slow bumpy road and I was pleasantly surprised that the climb only took about 2% of charge.  A 110 volt charger came with the car and that takes about 7 hours for Myrna's usual drive discharge.  For $800 we could get a 240 volt charger that would take half the time but as it doesn't matter under the current use we will put that off.

This car feels rock solid and since the dealer agreed to JPEG the whole shop manual my only fear is failure of a computer module.  The bumper sticker says "I GET MY ELECTRICITY FROM THE SUN".  The house got most of its electricity from the sun before we got the car but now we will need the rest of the roof covered to supply both.  Since cheap geothermal power looks to be stalled, more solar will be next year's goal right after we sell our former house and get our federal  tax rebate of $7,500 for the car.  The Hawaiian tax rebate fund was consumed by May and won't apply anyway to cars bought out of state.  For tech details, the Think website is: http://thinkev.leftbankcompanies.com/owners/