Mygreenwheels

Even if your grasp of the Norwegian language stops at 'fjord', take a couple of minutes to watch this video of the Think OX, the new concept car unveiled by Think at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this week. I'm just stunned.

I've been a Think fan from the beginning when I drove a Think City around Edinburgh for more than a year, but this knocks the City into a cocked hat and I'll bet it's got the other EV car companies shaking in their shoes.

Get a load of this. It's what they call a platform vehicle - a 5-seater totally electric car built on a platform that allows for modular different body styles, so you can have an MPV/taxi version, a coupe, a sports version. The exterior is fully recyclable and even the interior is 95% recyclable. There's a solar roof panel to keep you cool when the engine is switched off or it can run the sound system at your beach picnic!

The base model will have a top speed of 130km/hr and will have a range of over 250km for city driving or 200km for combined highway and city summer driving and there are plans for a sports version with higher top speed and extended range up to 450km.

A full charge from a normal European socket will take 12 hours, but the Think OX will be able to reach an 80% charge in one hour with a high power off-board fast charge.

Now this is all nice stuff too (and even the darned steering wheel looks fab). It's got a key-less entry fob setting that stores and displays my personal choices - my music, desktop (see the dashboard in the video) and displays my emails as well as automatically adjusting seating, mirrors and steering wheel. More than that it gives me feedback on the charging status and can send messages via GPRS. But wait til you read about the Think Connectivity Platform ... this is just the coolest thing and I guess it's what the designer Kathinka von der Lippe is talking about on the video clip.

Ho hum. What a shame it's just a concept car and they so often don't make it into the real world, but maybe this time the Think OX might survive. It certainly makes other 4 or 5-seater EV models look lame and I just so want one right now!