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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Norwegian Electric Car Manufacturer Plans U.S. Factory

03/13/2009
Think, a Norway-based manufacturer of electric cars, plans to open a factory and technical center in the United States. The company says in a statement that it is currently in discussion with eight states, including Michigan, that are competing for the facility, which will initially employ 370 workers, engineers, and specialists and would produce 16,000 cars per year. Final plans call for up to 900 employees and a production capacity of 60,000 electric vehicles per year. "The U.S. is quickly overtaking Europe as an attractive market for EVs and is an ideal location to engineer and build EVs," says Richard Canny, Think's CEO. "We see ourselves playing a small but potentially growing role in re-inventing the U.S. auto industry by bringing back new manufacturing jobs to the U.S. to replace internal combustion engine vehicles that are expensive to operate and maintain with clean, efficient electric vehicles." The plant will build the TH!NK City, a two-seat compact electric car that the company says can travel up to 112 miles on a single charge. Officials from Think are in Ann Arbor, Michigan, meeting with officials from all eight states vying for the project; the Detroit News reports that the company plans to narrow the choices down to one or two states by March 31.

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