Norway-based electric car manufacturing firm Think has established a joint venture with two American clean tech investors, Kleiner Perkins and RockPort Capital, to expand its business in North America.

The new venture was announced at the 2008 FORTUNE Brainstorm Green Conference held in Pasadena, California, which brought chief executives from all over North America together to talk about the business opportunities of ''going green.''

Jan-Olaf Willums, CEO of Think Global. stated, the TH!NK city is the world's only crash-tested and highway-certified electric vehicle, ideal for markets such as California. Think will carry out trail runs and demo-projects of its electric cars in the American city to display the exceptionally safe features and overall driving satisfaction of the cars.

TH!NK city, an eco-friendly car with nearly zero emission and 95 per cent  recyclable, meets all European and US federal motor vehicle safety requirements. It reaches a top speed of 100 km (65 miles) per hour and can drive up to 180 km (110 miles) on a single battery charge.

During the Geneva Motor show earlier this year, Think unveiled the TH!NK Ox, the first 4/5-seater fully-electric vehicle which is slated to begin production in 2010/11. Think also announced a strategic partnership with energy giant General Electric, also an investor in Think at the Geneva show.

The Norwegian company has already formed partnerships with American battery suppliers A123 and EnerDel.

The TH!NK city is currently produced in Norway and international sales are scheduled to begin in Scandinavia, with Switzerland and France also being the initial focus areas. Sales, other than initial trial and demonstration projects, will begin in the North American market in 2009.

Think designs, develops, manufactures and sells environmentally friendly vehicles and technologies. The company has sold about 1,200 electric vehicles in Norway, drawing on 17 years of experience in electric vehicle development and production.

As part of its expansion plan, capacity of its first assembly plant in Aurskog, outside Oslo, is  being increased to 10,000 cars per year and the company expects to start production at full capacity sometime during 2009.