VIDEO: Shai Agassi's speech on the future of electric cars
Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Project Better Place, gave an amazing speech at a New Democrat Network meeting recently. Want to know how Agassi's idea for electric cars got $200 million -- the "largest seed round of any venture in history?" Then you have to check out his speech below the fold which tells the history of the company, makes a case for electric cars and details his company's future plans.
The 25 minute video flies by thanks to Agassi's charm and humor. Project Better Place begins testing this year and it plans to have hundreds of cars on the road a year later. Agassi refers to renewable energy sources as "virtual oil fields" and talks of feeding power to the grid as a backup power source for a country. The speech ends with him predicting that by 2020, more new cars will be electric. If that prediction comes true, he will have likely played a significant role.
[Source: Google Video]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
armmat 12:32PM (3/18/2008)
It's funny...a country that gets unlimited money, backing, support, etc etc...comes out with a new technology which they had little to do with and everyone pats them in the back...how repulsive.
Maybe Israel can clean up its genocidal and atrocious record of human rights violations before everyone is so keen to call them tech heros...what's next? They'll be given a nobel price for making the electric car with our tax dollars? No thanks.
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fountainhead19 9:57AM (4/23/2009)
My dear Armmat, you're so obviously bias and most likely belonging to a radical Islamic sect of some sort. How long before you’ll join the suicide bombers? You have the guts to question the money received by Israel? At least it's not hidden like the financing of Al Qaida by your cronies. And you think you know about genocide? I suggest you read some history. By doing so, you’ll also discover the greatness of Islamic culture in the past. You radicals are the number one enemy of the entire civilized world, including true Islam.
mattW 1:06PM (3/18/2008)
That is the most exciting non-fiction video I think I have ever seen, I'm a big fan of electric cars (I'm a moderator on www.diyelectriccar.com)but I had no Idea it could all happen so quickly! The 6 year battery contract idea is perfect. I was sceptical when I saw the project better place battery swap device but when you don't own the battery and all the cars are the same it would be flawless. I'm impressed on so many levels and I'm usually the sceptical reserved type. Now I wonder if the Australian Government would consider it...
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Truth Seeker 1:08PM (3/18/2008)
armmat, wow, I can hear the hate in your voice. Have you ever posted about the "atrocious record of human rights" in places like Syria, Iran, Indonesia, etc?
Nope, no JEWS there to hate. Get off your hight horse before someone knocks you off it. Moonbat.
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Viva La Pin head 9:30PM (3/18/2008)
armmat, wow, I can hear the hate in your voice. Have you ever posted about the "atrocious record of human rights" in places like Syria, Iran, Indonesia, etc?
Nope, no JEWS there to hate. Get off your hight horse before someone knocks you off it. Moonbat.
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ug 1:30PM (3/18/2008)
Sure as death and taxes, any mention of Israel and the bigots pop up.
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Dave 1:08PM (3/18/2008)
armmat, read a book or take a class.
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GoodCheer 1:14PM (3/18/2008)
I don't think Israel is be given credit for the technology, it just happens to be the nationality of the guy with the money.
It also happens to have the ideal confluence of
1. Being a transportation island
2. Significant personal and state wealth
3. Maybe the world's greatest incentive to rid itself of dependence on Arab controlled oil.
As Mr. Agassi said, PBP has been in talks with 30 other states, illustrating that it's not simply "project Israel".
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Tim 2:07PM (3/18/2008)
WOW, brilliant!
I wish our politicians had enough courage to do the right things instead of just prostituting themselves to the military-industrial complex and regulate, tax and spend us into oblivion.
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armmat 4:56PM (3/18/2008)
I see the "you're an anti-semite" propaganda crowd is in full force here too...
Blind as bats...
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Viva La Pin head 5:56PM (3/18/2008)
armmat, answer this question. In this blog devoted to news about making autos run cleaner, how many leaders from arab muslim countries have you ever heard advocate getting economies away from using oil and gasoline? Now tell us who is blind.....
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Icelander 6:03PM (3/18/2008)
I am getting conflicting info on the feasibility of car battery quick-charge. Subaru R1e program people, Phoenix Motorcars and ZAP tell us that quick-charge can be done (10-15min). Then I hear Shai Agassi talk about how dangerous quick-charge is and how you need to move away from your car.. your hair will stick up etc. I also heard A123 Battery people being sceptical about quick-charge.
What is the real truth or is it that non-quick-charging batteries fits Project Better Place and A123 business models better?
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Schmeltz 9:13PM (3/18/2008)
When I first heard about Project Better Place, I thought it was just another pie in the sky futurist fantasy of some sort. But now with the detailed explanation he gave, this might be something that actually could work. I wish him the best on this. Time will tell.
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ryan.a.hebert 12:03AM (3/19/2008)
wow... I usually don't post, but armmat... you have such a nasty spirit, why did you even bother posting?
As for quick-charge... maybe the times required by Project Better Place make the charging a bit more dangerous... it could be that they want to champion their "swap" system by observing a quick-charge as being less than 5 min. Who knows... it's all very exciting.
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Chris M 12:29AM (3/19/2008)
"how many leaders from arab muslim countries have you ever heard advocate getting economies away from using oil and gasoline?" How about in Dubai, where they are building Masdar, which will be a green city with an electric PRT public transport system. Yes, some Arab leaders really are planning ahead for the end of the oil age.
I'm sorry, but Israel really does have an atrocious human rights record, with Palestinians being arrested for any reason or no reason, indefinite detentions, held incommunicado, no habeas corpus, no right to trial. Israel has been trying to drive out the Palestinians for 6 decades by making their lives miserable and impoverished, confiscating lands, destroying property, homes, and farms. When Palestinians rebel and fight back, Israel uses that as an excuse to slaughter. Of course, Israel isn't the only one with an atrocious human rights record, there are worse ones nearby in the Middle East. However, we shouldn't excuse Israel simply because they aren't the worst!
Enough ranting. I haven't seen any evidence that Shai Agassi or the Project Better Place is involved with the atrocities commited by the Israeli government, we shouldn't blame him or PBP for evil acts done by others. Project Better Place might be one of the few good things to come from that sordid mess.
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CC 1:40AM (3/19/2008)
Both Armmat and Chris M,
The history of Islam is filled with death, war, violence. I could post up lists of wars it would take more pages then I think autoblog would let me post. I do after years of history study know the facts very well. If you want to talk human right then the finger needs not to be pointed at the one looking to defend themself(Isreal) but on the ones doing the attacking. Every day Isreal get attacked, most of the time from Palestinians.
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Jimmy 10:12PM (7/23/2008)
What about the car running on compressed air? The batteries on the electrical cars still have a few pollutants in them?
As for the religious part of this thread. Religion and Politics, irrespective of flavour or colour have, caused the death of quite a few people. Lets look at our own wrongs before we worry about others, shall we?
Chris M 2:16AM (3/19/2008)
"The history of Islam is filled with death, war, violence..." As is the history of Christianity, and, as the old testament makes abundantly clear, so is the history of Judaism.
Just because others do it doesn't excuse their atrocities, even if the "others" were worse. BTW, I'm not excusing any of the Arab/Palestinian/Muslim terrorist acts, either.
Another history lesson: This whole sordid Middle East dispute started with a terrorist act, the bombing of the King David hotel by a Jewish Zionist group determined to drive out the British and other Goyim to create a Jewish state.
Are you sure you want to continue this flame war?
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meme 2:31AM (3/19/2008)
Chris M.: By your "I oppose the foreign policy of the Likud party" comments, you are clearly an antisemite. Never mind that a large number of Israelis agree with you. Or that Arabs are semites, for that matter.
And yes, a lot of good has come out of Israel, domestically. Shai Agassi is hardly the first. It's Israel's foreign policy of retaliating for every attack against them on an order of magnitude greater scale that's problematic.
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Chris M 3:20AM (3/19/2008)
Meme, are you trying to be sarcastic? It's hard to tell. Do you really believe that any criticism of the ruling party in Israel is somehow automatically "antisemitic"?
Seems to me that honest criticism of any Israeli group is not necessarily anti-semitic. What would be anti-semitic would be making up slanderous lies and spreading scurrulous rumors, and calling for unwarranted punishments and vicious attacks against Israelis.
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