"Ford doesn't want to give people a chance to see that they can easily drive electric cars. The Ford guys don't want to break free of their dependence on petrol," a Greenpeace Norway spokesman, Truls Gulowsen, told AFP.

Some 15 activists occupied Ford's roof for several hours, unfurling banners reading: "Ford, don't crush Think", the name of a Norwegian-built electric car which the US company had invested in before canning the project.

Ford has decided to send more than 400 Thinks, made for and shipped to the British and US markets, to the wrecking yard.

A Norwegian distributor who specialises in electric cars, Elbil Norge, has however proposed to buy the cars for one million dollars, with the aim of selling them in Norway where eager consumers must currently sign up on waiting lists.

"It's totally unbelievable that Ford prefers to pay to destroy these cars which are perfectly good and environmental, rather than receive money for them and see them re-sold in Norway," Gulowsen said.

After winning a court case against the US state of California which introduced quotas on a minimum number of so-called "clean cars", Ford decided to pull out of the electric car business, Greenpeace said.

Contacted by AFP, the Norwegian branch of Ford was not available for direct comment.

"The Thinks sent to the United States are made for the American market. It is out of the question to bring the cars back and modify them for the Norwegian market," a spokesman for Ford Norway, Jan Johansson, told Norwegian news agency NTB.

He said the cars would be dismantled before being sent to the wrecking yard, and the salvaged parts would be used as spare parts in Norway.

He said that the US auto maker was continuing its efforts to develop clean cars, but instead of electric cars the group was focusing its efforts on hydrogen-powered vehicles.

TERRA.WIRE