• Why I’m half the car enthusiast I used to be

Being a car fan these days demands zero-conscience towards the environment. And you have to be really rich to even qualify as one. Why? It’s not that cars are expensive. It’s the fuel prices that hits the wallet hard long after you hand over the downpayment for a shiny new SUV. I won’t go into saving the environment because I’m guilty too of spoiling mother earth right now. Though not as guilty as those driving SUV fuel guzzlers.

I’m no longer in awe reading about new V-sixes, turbochargers, superchargers or even how the latest Nissan GT-R laps the ring quicker than just about any legal roadcar on the planet right now. Even Formula One, the pinnacle of automobile technology, has stopped making their racing cars faster. Instead new regulations demand Formula One teams to put their R&D into alternative energy conservation, production and efficiency know-how.

I’m Th!ink-ing several years ahead, when fuel prices might end up ranging between $200 and $250 a barrel. And our country’s inflation doubles (god forbid). The new Th!ink city EV give us a glimpse of how we can escape from the clutches of soaring fuel. It’s a tiny two-seater electric car. No it can’t fit 4 adults, golf bags or go all the way from north to south of peninsular Malaysia on a single charge yet. But it shines in urban use and for someone like me, who spends most of my time crawling in traffic jams around the city, it will be a godsent. Throw in a radio/CD player and I’m sold. Who cares about a topspeed of 65 mph when you inch along Federal Highway at barely 6.5 kmph. Also on a single charge, it can go as far as 125 miles and that’s more than enough for me.

If the TH!NK electric city car is any indication of where our auto industry is heading, we’re in for a revolution. It is exciting to imagine a decade from now, we may not have to worry about fuel everytime we need to use our cars.