Project Better Place has been hard at work developing a variant on the Electric Vehicle Vehicle debate. Project Better Place, founder and Chief Executive Shai Agassi, indicates that the company is set to launch it's swappable-battery electric car program in 2010.Project Better Place has designed a radically different "infrastructure" for purchasing and driving there vehicles, a system in which the company would install charging and battery swap stations. At the swapping stations drivers would be able to put in fully rechargeable lithium ion batteries in the same amount of time that it would take to fill up a gasoline powered vehicle.
But that's not all folks, Project Better Place business model revolutionizes the concept of purchasing a vehicle from Project Better Place, with Project Better Place you pay much like you do when utilizing a cell phone. From the Better Place Website: "Think of it like this: we pay mobile providers for minute-by-minute access to cell towers connected together in cellular networks. Truth is, we pay comparatively little - or next to nothing - for the phones themselves. After all, what you're really buying is air time, not a box with buttons. The same model works for transportation. Just replace the phone with an electric car, replace the cell towers with battery recharge stations, and replace the cellular networks with an electric grid. Now you're buying miles, not minutes."
The drivers of there vehicles would be paying for access to a network of charging spots and conveniently located battery exchange stations powered by renewable energy. Drivers would pay for the miles that they drive and would be made to be more affordable, even free in some markets, this would be accomplished by financial and environmental incentives to add drivers into the network. Project Better Place would operate the electric recharge grid that brings everything together.
The project is getting major backing from the Israeli government and has a alliance with Renault-Nissan that is developing the vehicle and the battery system and will invest $500 Million to $1 Billion dollars in the project over the next couple of years. The initiative has also raised another $200 Million in venture backing and has begun work on recharging networks in Israeli and Denmark. In addition Australia, Canada, California and Hawaii have committed to developing the infrastructure necessary to have the network available for consumers in those area's (Note to Better Place, on your website you indicate that California and Hawaii are countries, they are not, merely states within the USA).
I find that the effort is revolutionary, it will be interesting to follow the progress of this noble effort, some in the business and auto community are not giving the project much hope, however I am going to step back and examine the business model. If the company can sustain itself and find enough customers it may get some legs provided that the cost to operate does not shut out large numbers of consumers. I have not been able to find information to make an appropriate judgement until I can review those reports I will reserve judgement on it's success or failure.
I will say this, you will certainly have a lot of people thinking particularly if you can lower or meet the needs and demands of hungry consumers to go green and sustain a business model that does not require large chunks of up front money to spend on automobiles. I have a lot of questions that I want answered and I will report back when fully researched.
Enjoy Today!
That Car Guy
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