Pivco City Bee, Think City, Buddy Electric and Kewet Buddy!



Well, shoot, these cars might've been the ones I oughta kicked off this blog with, considerin' we're talkin' about Norwegian rides and brands cooked up right here in Norway. First laid eyes on a Pivco City Bee back in '95 at Hunderfossen, but reckon the first time was on that Newton kids' show on NRK back in the early '90s. Our own Morten Harket, bless his heart, supposedly snagged himself one of them cars, maybe just to breeze through them toll booths for free? Either way, it turned into a solid PR stunt for them two Norwegian brands, Harket and Pivco City Bee.

Pivco City Bee supposedly hit the scene in the early '90s. By '94, the first proper prototypes were supposedly ready, just in time for the Lillehammer Olympics. Come the late '90s, somewhere between '95 and '98, seems like a handful of 'em got sold here in Norway. Sadly, today, despite Norwegians bein' all crazy 'bout cars, there's only three left! Two teal ones, one with license plate DH 75122 and another teal one with some unknown number, and a yellow one with license plate EL 10395.

Pivco City Bee did struggle a bit with sales and was on the brink of goin' under. But when the Americans showed interest 'cause of some environmental vibe, Ford Motor Corp itself went ahead and bought the whole shebang along with Volvo. And the king in Norway pulled a PR stunt by opening the new Think factory in Aurskog, just east of Oslo in Akershus.

At the same time the Swedes pulled a PR stunt sellin' Volvo to the Americans, which my old man believes led to many Volvo employees losin' jobs, at least within Sweden. This happened while the Swedish Minister of Industry supposedly said, 'Norgje är världens sista sovjetstat'—'Norway is the world's last Soviet state.'

In Denmark, the Danes supposedly rolled out a car brand called Kewet Buddy. This car found its way to Norway in the '90s too. When Think City went belly up after Ford scrapped Think a few years prior, including a time when the Yanks just plowed through and scrapped a whole bunch of electric cars. In the midst of scrappin' their electric car efforts and environmental enthusiasm altogether, some Norwegian entrepreneurs bought up Kewet Buddy and gave it the catchier name Buddy Electric.

Gotta say, I'm wonderin' why almost no Norwegians are snaggin' Buddy Electric? Not only is it made in Norway, but that car's been goin' strong for over 30 years now, with about 15 of those years of production right in Groruddalen, Oslo. Compare that to Pivco and Think, which only lasted about half a decade each.

Had a colleague of mine, a real dyed-in-the-wool nationalist, supposedly drove a Think City from '03 to around '20 (and a redneck Jeep Grand Cherokee for a good 25 years). He worked fixin' up electrical gadgets and was supposed to be real handy with fixin' things, especially electrical stuff. That electric City of his lasted probably a good 10 years more than it should have before he ended up buyin' the same car as me, a Citroen C-zero (instead of the national symbol Buddy Electric, reckon this colleague had more bark than bite).

Cars like these, you can spruce 'em up, like I did with my electric car, with some hot chrome ladies on the hood.

The norwegian queen Sonja unveils a Pivco City Bee in the USA.

Here you can see a modern Think City, with the only yellow Pivco City Bee in the background.


Buddy Electric dressed in authentic national romantic attire. Only missing an elk in the sunset.

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