The growth of the electric car movement has been slow and steady, but Israel is looking to jump-start things with a bold plan to have a nationwide grid for electric cars in place by 2011.
Dubbed "Project Better Place," the plan is to give drivers two options for recharging their electric car batteries: pulling up to a battery-switching station, and swapping a drained battery for a fully-charged battery, or plugging in at a recharging parking spot. The goal is to have over 500,000 charging ports in parking spots across the country, and 200 battery-swap stations. Renault-Nissan will lead the development of an electric car specially designed to work with the system.
Project Better Place is the brainchild of Shai Agassi, a former SAP executive and software entrepreneur. After approaching the Israeli government with the plan in 2007, Israeli President Shimon Peres suggested he explore the idea in the private sector. Shai took the advice, and promptly raised about $200 million. The goal is to have a pilot project in place by 2009, and large-scale production and infrastructure completed by 2011.
According to Agassi, there were two key events in 2007 that paved the way for Project Better Place: the skyrocketing price of oil, and a new generation of batteries that can outlive a car. On his blog, The Long Tailpipe, Agassi talks about his agreement with Renault-Nissan:
“Carlos Ghosn, the legendary CEO, who runs two car companies headquartered in two different continents…promised us a great car, a fun car to drive, a good performance full three-box sedan, a better car TCO than internal combustion engine, and he promised it will be delivered in volume within approximately three years.”
Israel’s plan here is ambitious, to say the least, and in particular the timeline. In addition to the significant investment it will require, there is also the issue of getting all these swap stations built and filled with expensive, untested, lithium ion battery packs. If they can pull it off, though, what an amazing example it will be for the rest of the world.
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Comments By Readers
Nothing can be learned from the Agassi project, regardless of whether the desperate Israelis can endure the high costs of these tiny electric cars. Israel is a tiny county and driving ranges miniscule. That would translate to small Paciifc islands, but no other nations. The scheme is going to make these Evs quite pricey and
drive up the cost of battery packs, already the prime reason battery-only electrics are a stupid route to take - plug-ins are infinitly more practical, convenient and available. They can accomplish everything that Agassi's mammoth infrastructure can do, at a fraction of the costs. Agassi's scheme is primarily a money-making proposition - ecologically, it makes little sense.
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