Zoomi Life

After two bankruptcies and a recent financial crisis that was rescued at the last minute by THINK Global’s battery supplier, the company has gone belly up. THINK, struggling to get solvent since their beginning, is proof that starting and successfully running an EV business is not easy.  Like any business, a lot of things have to come together and work well in order for success to happen.

THINK Global, it appears, was never able to get all of its processes in sync.   Building cars, as the Wall Street Journal points out in their article about THINK’s demise, is not a simple process. The logistics of supply, the capital required to get (and keep) going, and sales and marketing all have to come together seamlessly or there will be trouble.

While a lot of greenies are lamenting that the Norwegian government didn’t step in to help keep the company afloat–like the U.S. government (wrongly) did for the Big 3. Personally, I don’t think that was the issue.  I think the problem was deeper than that.  The financial crunch has a good side that you don’t see during times of plenty: the weaker, less well-run businesses are failing because investors are not interested in putting money into businesses that can’t prove their ability.  As those less efficient and less able companies fall by the wayside, the competition will focus not on numbers of vehicles, but instead on quality of vehicles.

This, I think, is what the EV industry needs the most.  There are thousands of models of EVs out there, including bikes, cars, trains, scooters, and more.  What we need aren’t more KINDS of EVs, but instead more QUALITY in the ones we have. We need better batteries, longer life spans, higher safety, longer range, etc.  Otherwise, the EV industry is doomed.

THINK’s CEO Richard Canny, of course, is blaming the failure on public money saving large manufacturers and leaving THINK and companies like them to fend for themselves. Sure, that’s probably part of the problem, but government isn’t the solution here.  The government giving money to auto manufacturers was a bad idea to start with and shouldn’t be used as an excuse to keep giving more money.  Think blaming that for their woes is like the three-year-old who cries because his sister got a cookie and he didn’t.

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