17 May 2011

Th!nk is more conspicuous than Mini E

I never had anyone stop me in the Mini E to ask about it.  But the Th!nk EV stands out a bit more.

Today, in the rain, someone got out two cars ahead of me at a stop light and ran back to give me a phone number.  They wanted to know more about the EV.

Another tidbit I learned today: while the car can sustain 70 mph, the road speed limit does not completely cut power until 75 mph going down hill.  A lot of blogs are claiming a top speed of 60, which is only in Economy mode.

I don't have enough miles to comment much on range yet, except that 100 seems easy off the freeway.  And the range appears less elastic than the Mini E, simply because there is less power to waste.

2 comments:

  1. Jim,

    What is the battery capacity and the charge rate?

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  2. Hi Tom

    The Th!nk has a 24 kwh lithium ion battery from Ener Del, made in Indiana. I don't know what the total capacity is, they just give that one number, which I assume is usable capacity. Maybe the forums have more details, I will be looking.

    Battery is cooled by outside air unlike the Mini E which used inside air. And the recirculate button can stay on indefinitely in the Th!nk, unlike the Mini E. Not that it is a good idea to do that.

    At least the Th!nk has air cooling for the battery, unlike the Leaf where there is no battery cooling at all. The Th!nk motor and electronics are liquid cooled, like the Tesla and Smart ED.

    I believe the max charge rate is 3.8 kw, but I am only using 120 volts so far which I measure at 1.3 kw. My commute is so short, I have not needed to install the 240 volt wall box left over from the Mini E.

    Charging rate is clearly the big drawback.

    The spec sheet for the 5th gen Th!nk is here:

    https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1fP0C1ICfY3HDJCJtJl6_wsADxtrbVp-b5sDiU7nfm_N-5PRw1TdywXIaWa5s&hl=en&authkey=CKja3N0E

    There is more on www.thinkev-usa.com, look under "owners" at the bottom and you can download all the manuals.

    I need to post a summary of specs soon.

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