The US state of Indiana is among the first to go electric after THINK delivered 17 of its THINK City electric cars to customers and employees across the region.
Duke Energy in Plainfield, Indiana, took 10 of the vehicles; with the remainder going to Indianapolis Power & Light for company fleet use.
According to THINK spokesman Brendan Prebo, electric utilities are a natural extension of the company’s fleet strategy and by targeting these companies it is able to address several important challenges towards commercialisation including residual value for batteries, the cost of installing infrastructure and the local impact on the grid.
THINK is now working with both companies to collect data on the deployment and use of electric cars as part of its Project Plug-IN. It hopes that by early 2011 it will place 100 or more electric vehicles and charging infrastructure with government and corporate fleets as well as individual commuters across the Indianapolis area.
As for the vehicle itself, it can travel up to 100miles on a single charge using lithium-ion batteries manufactured in Indiana by Ener1.
