BETTER PLACE GETTING BIGGER

Stars align for maker of electric car infrastructure
Bill Vlasic, February 9, 2009 (International Herald Tribune)

"When Shai Agassi set out in 2007 to develop an infrastructure to service electric cars, circumstances were hardly in his favor…But now Agassi and his start-up company, Better Place, are riding the tailwinds of an industry that is suddenly obsessed with going electric.

"Nearly every major auto company in the world is committed to building electric cars, and President Obama has made reducing oil consumption a centerpiece of his energy policy.

"It's a fortuitous turn of events for Agassi, a former software executive who is bringing his Silicon Valley business acumen to devising a system to increase the driving range of electric cars…"

Meet Shai Agassi. From loiclemeur via YouTube.

"The key to consumer acceptance of electric cars, he said, is installing a network of stations that can replace drained batteries with fresh ones - just like filling a vehicle with a new tank of gas.

"By building its first battery-changing stations in test markets like Israel, Denmark and Japan, Better Place is positioning itself to be a critical link in the evolution of the electric-car market…Advances in lithium-ion battery technology have increased the range and reliability of prototype electric models. Agassi is betting that batteries will become commodity products that can be leased and then replaced on demand in the ordinary course of driving.

"Better Place has joined forces with governments in several countries to test its switching stations, and has also signed agreements in Hawaii and with a nine-city alliance of communities in the San Francisco Bay area [as well as in Denmark, Japan, Australia, and Canada].

"Agassi has no previous experience in the auto industry, but has been a devotee of electric cars for some time. He owns one of the 1,500 battery-powered RAV4 sport utility vehicles that Toyota built for testing purposes in the late 1990s…The Better Place system includes software that analyzes a vehicle's battery consumption, and can direct drivers either to small-scale charging spots or full-size switching stations."

Better Place. From twenny12 via YouTube.

"Agassi estimates that a single battery-switching station will cost about $500,000 to build. A vehicle will park on a conveyor similar to the track in a car wash, and within minutes its depleted battery will be removed and replaced with a fully-charged one.

"The batteries themselves might possibly be owned by Better Place, with consumers simply purchasing electric charges as they would cellphone minutes…One auto industry analyst said the business model should be particularly appealing to automakers…

"Better Place will open its first battery-switching stations by 2010, in Israel. Agassi expects that tax credits for electric cars will be widespread in several countries by then. Demand for the vehicles, he said, will grow in proportion to the ease of charging batteries or exchanging them."