Project Better Place coming to Japan?
The Globes reports Project Better Place's CEO Shai Agassi is in Japan looking for partners to bring Project Better Place to the Asian country. Shai has nothing official to say just yet but he does tell Globes that there is a great chance of success in Japan because it's a "transportation island." Batteries would also not be a huge problem in Japan, the article notes. Below the fold is a recent video about Project Better Place with new shots of the Renault electric car driving on the street.
[Source: Globes]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KarenRei 7:01PM (2/26/2008)
The Japanese love driving tiny little clown cars. It should be an easy sell. It'll have to have a funny name, though, before it'll be able to displace some market share from the "Royal Saloon" and the "Today Humming". ;)
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Jon Dutch 1:41AM (2/27/2008)
I personally love the "Project Better Place" concept. It is a unique approach at increasing the availability and proliferation of electric cars t the masses around the world. We are fortunate here where anybody can pick up an affordable electric car, like the Xebra Sedan from ZAP (http://www.zapworldwide.com) and make the change for most all of our local commuting. Spreading this message and infrastructure throughout the word is a great movement to get behind.
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GoodCheer 9:34AM (2/27/2008)
To go back to an old idea...
How about Project Better Place Hawaii?
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GoodCheer 10:00AM (2/27/2008)
... Particularly Oahu because:
1. Much of Oahu is urban and suburban, giving it a population density about 1.5 times that of New Jersey.
2. A 100 mile range would pretty much make a full lap of the island.
3. I would all of the Hawaiian islands would have good geothermal resources (being recently volcanic and all). Some of the other islands have GREAT wind resources.
It seems like a good fit for electrification.
I suppose Japan shares points 1&3...
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KarenRei 12:11PM (2/27/2008)
"I would all of the Hawaiian islands would have good geothermal resources (being recently volcanic and all). Some of the other islands have GREAT wind resources."
Add solar, wave, and tidal to the list as well ;) Hawaii is blessed with bountiful potential renewable resources, and it's a shame that you largely rely on imported fossil fuels for your power.
Note that most geothermal in Hawaii would need to be EGS (enhanced geothermal) because you need to have porous or fractured rock for the water from the injection well to flow through to the recovery wells.
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GreenWavelet 5:39AM (4/01/2008)
Re Japan & Hawaii, I'd guess the issue is the government-based financial incentives. Initially, due to lack of mass volume, the cars & batteries will be fairly expensive (IIRC, single battery cost is ~$10K). That means incentives are required for adoption by consumers the first few years until production ramps up and battery technologies improve.
In Israel, this is accomplished by the government reducing the import duty on cars from 85% for petrol cars (hybrids are 40% IIRC) to 10% for pure-electrics.
In Denmark, the situation is similar: Import duties are even higher (180%) , and I think pure-electrics are completely exempt.
There are very low if any import duties in the US as far as I know, so the only way to create this level of incentive for a specific region like Hawaii is some kind of direct subsidy, which is very rare in the US and difficult politically, or a huge tax credit for consumers (again hard to do, since most of the tax is Federal, not state-level)
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