Ford Will Not "Think" - Bye Bye Electric Car

Oslo, Norway December 19, 2002; John Griffiths writing for FT reported that Ford plans to sell its Think Nordic electric car unit to Kamkorp, a Singapore-based group with global electronic, engineering and property interests.

The world's second-largest carmaker has invested more than $100m in the Norway-based business.

However, like many of its rivals, the Detroit-based company is dropping a decades-long attempt to develop viable battery- powered vehicles that could rival petrol or diesel cars.

Ford is to concentrate instead - like virtually all of its rivals - on the development of hydrogen fuel cells as the propulsion unit for automobiles of the future.

It said in August that it would make no more investments in Think Nordic, which was established with the backing of the Norwegian government.

No financial details of the planned disposal were revealed but the sale is expected to be com- pleted next month, following the signing yesterday of a binding letter of intent.

Think Nordic's plant near Oslo has the capacity to make 4,000 cars a year but only about 1,000 have been sold.

The sale price of Think Nordic is believed to be much lower than the $70m that Ford originally paid for the company nearly four years ago.

However, the final abandonment of Ford's costly research programmes to develop environmentally "clean" battery-powered cars should make at least a small contribution to reducing the large losses sustained.

Ford is in the throes of a global restructuring after seeing its fortunes plunge from a record profit of $7.2bn three years ago to a $5.45bn loss last year.

Kamkorp, whose European headquarters are in the UK, has a significant stake in electric vehicles and is expected to continue development and production at Think Nordic, which had a new vehicle almost ready for production when Ford announced it was pulling the plug. More than 100 workers have been laid off since.

Kamkorp owns Frazer-Nash of the UK, which has electric car body building capabilities, and Electrosource, based in San Marcos, Texas, which produces advanced lightweight lithium batteries. It supplied some vehicles for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

"The most important thing is maintaining the technology and production that we have developed," Think Nordic's managing director, Ingemar Bjoerholt, said last night.