Archive for the ‘Better Place’ Category

We've mentioned Shai Agassi and his game-changing EV startup, Better Place, several times on TCC. Now comes word that he's brokered an intriguing  deal to install charging and battery-changing infrastructure across Denmark, and the Danish government has agreed to nix the 200% new car tax (yes, you read that correctly) for EVs that work on the system. Currently, the only vehicles slated for sale are made by Better Place's partner, Renault, but more may follow -- if Agassi and his persuasive pals in the energy sector can convince them to sign on. Of course, whether Danes will bite on the offer is another matter altogether. [NYTimes]

Shai Agassi, the founder and CEO of Better Place, is by all accounts a supremely charismatic entrepreneur. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to wire Israel with electric-car recharging stations and battery quick-swap facilities, and will offer to sell his customers as many miles as they care to drive in Better Place cars at a fixed rate, just like a cell-phone service plan.

But like Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, who also occasionally says things that aren't quite true,  Agassi could use a bit of basic fact-checking. He claims that electric cars offered through Better Place will cost $4,500 to $7,500 less than equivalent gasoline or ...

Better Place has never been afraid of thinking big. Heck, the company's basic premise -- that electric vehicles can be built with easily swappable batteries -- is one of the most outside-the-box ideas we've heard in a while. So it should come as no surprise that Better Place is now thinking even bigger: the EV startup plans to put 100,000 vehicles on the roadways by 2016.

Just a couple of months ago, that kind of statement would've been enough to make us ring up the men in little white coats, but given the circumstances, Better Place founder Shai Agassi may be on to something. For one, he's inked a deal with Renault to facilitate production...