Better Place Plan - 12/1/08

Shai Agassi founder of Better Place, a company focused on building a scalable and sustainable personal transportation system that will help end the dependence on oil.  Agassi is working directly with government leaders, energy companies, auto makers, and others to complete his vision of zero emission electric vehicles powered by renewable energy.

His business model envisions the evolution of the entire transportation system.  Gas guzzlers are a thing of the past.  In their place the Better Place plan includes electric versions of our favorite cars developed by established car companies.  Their goal is to eliminate the dependence on oil along with the environmental and economic damage it causes.

The Better Place business model is similar to our experience with cellular phones.  We pay cellular providers minutes to connect to cell towers in cellular networks.  We pay near nothing for the phone and really only buying airtime.

The same cellular model works with transportation.  The electric car would be the cell phone, the battery recharging stations would be the cell towers, and the electric recharge grid would be the cellular networks.  You would be buying miles and not minutes.

After all, you just want to get from point A to point B, and why not do it by removing oil from the equation and bring your emissions to zero.

Drivers pay for the miles they drive. They pay to access the charging network and battery exchange stations powered by renewable energy.  Cars are made affordable and even free in some areas by financial and environmental incentives.  The drivers would be subscribers to the network.

Changing from pump to plug will be different, but the benefits would be enormous.  Drivers would be free from oil powering their cars to affordable clean energy while reaping the benefits of a cleaner environment.

The auto makers would move to a sustainable profitability meeting the demands of today’s consumers.  Selling the only car our children will drive the electric vehicle.

Energy companies would be serving a new market segment created by a new transportation infrastructure.  This would accelerate the transition to clean energy. 

All the nations of the world could bring economy and environment in balance and create new jobs to build this sustainable transportation infrastructure.

The planet would benefit from accelerating climate recovery.  40% of emissions would be reduced from the conversion of electric cars alone. 

What would this electric car infrastructure look like?

Batteries of electric vehicles need three things: charging spots, battery switching stations and an automated network.

Charging spots will top off batteries so they always have 100 miles of driving capacity.  They would be located where you work, shop, live and dine and in parking lots where you simply plug in to the network.

For trips longer than 100 miles battery switching stations will be available roadside.  The driver’s subscription to the service would take care of everything.  The driver pulls in to have their battery exchanged with a fresh one without ever leaving the vehicle.  The process takes less time than filling your tank up with gas.

Wind farms would be utilized.  Better Place will identify and develop its own “virtual oil fields” of renewable energy.  Australia has wind farms throughout the country and the U.S. has the same capability.

Better Place has commitments from Israel, Denmark, Australia and California to deploy the world’s first electric car networks.  More countries plan to join in the coming months. 

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