The strange story about how Google got involved in the development of a Scandinavian electric car.

Some of our readers will know that Pandia is a Norwegian enterprise, and as citizens of a very small nation we are mighty proud of the fact that we have a car industry. This is — of course — all about beating our neighbors, the Swedes, and their Volvos and Saabs.

The Norwegian car is called Think and you have probably never heard about it. Google has, however, and here is the story:

A child of the oil crisis

During the oil crisis of 1973-74 a Norwegian called Lars Ringdal came up with the idea of making a new electric car based on light weigh thermoplastic materials.

In 1980 his son Jan Otto Ringdal believed that new and greener trends would make this adventure possible. He founded the company PIVCO in 1990, got Norwegian and European public support, and presented a new prototype during the 1994 Olympics at Lillehammer.

Ford takes over

In 1996 Lotus got involved, and in 1998 the first edition of the Th!nk car was presented at the international exhibition for electric cars in Brussels. The company went bankrupt the same month, and was bought by Ford the year after.

Alas, the Ford adventure was not a success either. Ford decided that the Californian regulations for emissions did not become as strict as they had feared. Besides, hybrids seemed to be the technology of the future. Ford sold the company in 2002 to a Swiss enterprise, and that seemed to be the end of it all.

The Web 2.0 car

However, in 2006 the Norwegian millionaire Jan-Olaf Willums bought back the bankrupt company to Norway and decided to turn the new Th!nk into a “Web 2.0″ kind of car.

It can only be bought online. It is Internet and Wi-Fi enabled. The car will send you an email when it is time for service. You can text message the car to check its battery charge.

Well, you catch our drift: it is iPod compatible, has a GPS, airbags, ABS, is 95 percent recyclable, has a zero emission engine etc. etc.

A meeting at the Googleplex

As Business 2.0 reports Willums visited Joel Makower, a Bay Area business consultant, in Berkley, shortly after having taken over the company.

They met at the Googleplex in Mountain View to brainstorm the new concept into existence. Makower had contacts in Google. The location was presumably also chosen because Google is the kind of company what would like to associate itself with an eco-friendly electric car.

Besides, Sergey Brin of Google was one of the owners of the first Th!nk car.

Dean Kamen

Enter Dean Kamen. Kamen is best known for the Segway HT, the electric, gyroscope based, self-balancing human transporter. However, he is also the developer of a UK version of the Stirling engine.

The Stirling can run on nearly any type of fuel, and the idea is to put such an engine into the Th!nk City car. Kamen would like to use the Th!nk as a mobile generator that can draw energy from the power grid when needed and send electricity back during periods of peak demand, Business 2.0 reports.

For that to happen he needs a partner that can handle large amounts of data over global networks. The most obvious choice for that kind work is, of course, Google.

Kamen has discussed the concept with Google’s Brin and Page, who are — apparently — interested.

Google.org

Google has already installed a charging station in a solar-powered carport at the Googleplex.

Google.org, the philanthropic branch of Google, has developed RechargeIT.org, a project that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology.

Right now Google’s car park is dominated by Toyota Prius’es, but Google is considering to include the Th!nk. If that happens, it will be much easier to market Th!nk as the iPod car for the Google generation.

Norwegians should be the first to get the new car next year, but it will also be found in the American market in 2008.

See also: Think Nordic, an article over at the Wikipedia, and my own article The electric car Th!nk and the timing of innovation.