TH!INK City

Meet the car that’s aiming to revolutionise the daily commute into our busiest urban areas. The all-electric Th!nk City uses sodium batteries to deliver a 100-mile range and a top speed of nearly 70mph.

The performance is matched with full UK type approval and an array of safety features. And unlike some rivals – the G-Wiz, for example – the Th!nk is a proper car, instead of a souped-up, road-legal quadracycle.

A six-hour charge from a mains supply powered our car up, and our test route took us along a motorway into central London, where the TH!NK is exempt from the Congestion Charge. You won’t have to shell out for road tax, either, while running costs are 2p a mile.

And the Th!nk certainly turns heads. Its functional design includes a body made from hard-wearing plastic, which was an eye-catching matt black on our car. Start-up is a silent affair, and a single green light on the dash illuminates when the engine is ‘running’. The gearbox offers park, reverse and drive settings, plus an E-mode that maximises the distance you can get on a single charge by recovering energy while braking.

The batteries offer a low centre of gravity, but the unassisted steering is heavy. Moving off from traffic lights raises a few eyebrows, though, as maximum torque is available from a standstill – and lets you pull away quickly and quietly.

Critics will point to the fact petrol cars offer a greater range and more versatility. But that’s not the point of the Th!nk, which challenges conventional vehicles with its zero-emissions engine, fuss-free driving manners and low running costs.

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