One Silicon Valley startup has a bold plan to turn the world into a “better place” by taking oil out of transportation and replacing it with an infrastructure for electric cars.

The business model of Better Place entails having consumers subscribe to transportation as a service, much like they do with mobile phones. Consumers buy their own electric cars, but not the expensive batteries. Instead, they will subscribe to energy, including the use of the Better Place battery, on a basis of kilometers driven – similar to how mobile phones are sold. The cars are recharged by plugging in to the Better Place network of charging and battery swap stations.

Energy companies provide the network’s power through growing renewable energy projects. This is a crucial part of the plan so as not to shift emissions from tailpipe to smokestack.

Better Place just announced it will establish a Canadian head-office in Ontario, where it will build an electric car demonstration and education center to inform and gain support from the public. The Ontario government plans on releasing a study in May that will examine ways for electric vehicles to pick up speed, including providing financial incentives to purchase electric cars, how to incorporate electric vehicles into government fleets and how to coordinate public education.

Hawaii may be the furthest ahead of the game. Better Place plans to have between 50,000 and 100,000 charging stations for electric cars installed in the state by 2011, and plans to buy renewable energy from Hawaii’s largest electricity company. The program could reduce the state’s fossil fuel consumption by 70 percent.

Better Place has also begun working in Denmark, Australia and Israel. In fact, Israel Corp. just authorized a $100 million investment toward the electric car venture on top of $23 million that was already allocated to the project.

In this economy, Better Place's ability to continue to get investment and international interest is a pretty good sign that the momentum is genuine and sustainable. 
The concept  sounds fantastic, but the biggest question is whether consumers will buy into electric cars. Renault-Nissan is developing the first line of battery-powered electric cars for Better Place, but hasn’t announced what they will cost. Will automakers produce affordable electric cars, and will governments provide incentives to buy such vehicles?

Even if consumers haven’t had a chance to show their enthusiasm, government officials and venture capitalists are already buying into the idea. Bay Area leaders, including the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. met in November to discuss combining public and private investment to turn the region into the “Electric Vehicle Capital” of the United States. Better Place plays a huge role in this endeavor – it will build out a $1 billion electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, which could be built as soon as next year.