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Many people would find a 70-mile range acceptable for an electric car, according to a customer survey conducted by electric carmaker Think – as long as the electric car in question is reasonably priced. The company is planning to bring electric models to the U.S. in late 2010.

Conducted by a team of MBA students from the University of Michigan, the survey asked 367 potential electric car buyers whether a range of 70 to 80 miles would be acceptable if the price of the car dropped by $5,000.

Autoblog Green discusses the results: “About half of the respondents said that was fine. Only nine percent said they’d be willing to pay even less for an EV that can only go 50 miles. On the other end of the spectrum, 55 percent said they’d pay an extra five grand to be able to go 150-160 miles per charge.”

Based on the survey results, Think has announced that it may offer different sizes of batteries at different prices.

“The survey, conducted by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, breaks down an industry axiom that suggests customers would not consider an electric car that could not travel 100 miles on a single charge,” says United Press International.

Interestingly enough, a recent poll by Cars.com shows that most customers are nervous about buying an electric vehicle because of the potentially short mileage range. Conducted by Impulse Research, the survey included a random sample of about 1,000 men and women ages 18 and older.

According to USA Today, the results show that “54% were most concerned with ‘range anxiety’ in all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf or Mitsubishi’s MiEV. … Some 43% said they drive too far to even consider a Leaf or other EVs with a 100-mile range.”

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.

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