Aboard the Think City, a minuscule two-door hatchback that's about half as long as a Lincoln Town Car, even the starkly beautiful moonscape near the top of the world here seems to fade. The brakes feel a little twitchy, and the unassisted steering is a tad heavy, but manageable. Even my mom, a septuagenarian who drives a red Volkswagen Beetle, would not feel out of place in the Think City. It has a cheerful face accented by teardrop-shaped headlamps, with a large glassy tailgate in the rear. You shift into gear by pressing a large paddle-type device in the center of the console.
Amenities are minimal.
There's a CD player, but you have to crank the windows up and down by hand. Outside of the fact that you can't buy it yet in this country, the Think City has one major drawback. Between charges, the range is a shade over 50 miles, which pretty much limits its use to short jaunts around town, back and forth to school, church and the grocery store. It also takes eight hours to recharge fully on a European 220-volt circuit. Nor is the car inexpensive.