A total of 17 cars have been delivered to utility fleet customers and employees in Indiana, including four to Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL). 

'I wanted to be among the first to buy an electric car, because I think it’s the right thing to do,' said IPL employee Brenda Owens. 'I don’t like the fact that we are so dependent on imported oil. We need to find a better alternative.'

Ms Owens also sees electric cars as a way to help her employer find new markets for electricity.

'I’m spending a lot of time talking to people about electric cars,' she continued. 'Usually they want to know how many miles it goes on a gallon [of gas]. They are surprised to find out it does not use any gas and that this technology is here and available today.'

THINK has also reported that 10 electric THINK City cars have been supplied to Duke Energy in Plainfield, Ind while another seven have been delivered to Indianapolis Power & Light for company fleet use.

'Electric utilities and their employees are a natural extension of our fleet strategy,' said THINK spokesperson Brendan Prebo. 'By targeting electric utilities in the early deployment of EVs, we can help address several important challenges to the successful commercialisation of these cars, such as establishing residual values for batteries, the cost of installing infrastructure and understanding the local impact of charging networks on the grid. Electric utilities are impacted by all of these issues, not only as customers, but also as fuel and service providers.'

THINK is also working with Duke, IPL and the Energy Systems Network (ESN) to collect data on the deployment and use of electric cars as part of Project Plug-IN.