Shai Agassi pitches $100 billion plan
by Domenick Yoney on Jul 1st 2008 at 4:26PM 
No one could ever accuse Shai Agassi, the man behind electric-car infrastructure company Project Better Place, of not being ambitious. He has been all over the planet making deals with major car makers and various countries. His American discussions have been somewhat more modest though with a city here, and an island-state there. No longer.Speaking to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (we have one of those?), Agassi said, "For the price of two months worth of oil, some $100 billion, we can put in place the infrastructure needed to power the nation's cars and end this oil dependence," Ambitious, no? He then threw in the "American jobs" angle with, "Of that $100 billion, moreover, some $80 billion will go into jobs that, by their nature, can only be performed in the US - the construction of the infrastructure itself."
In the mood for throwing out big numbers and lofty goals, the man-on-a-mission even pitched renewable sources to power the nations automotive fleet saying, "For the price of one year's worth of oil, some $500 billion, we can go even farther - creating fully renewable electrical generation sufficient to power all of the nation's vehicles. In so doing, we will again create jobs that can only be performed in this country, and we will give a much broader stimulus to the renewables energy market." No word on what kind of impression was made on the politicians but we hope it got some hamster wheels turning. Check out the video after the break to gain your own impression of Agassi's vision.
[Source: Globes]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
eckre 4:50PM (7/01/2008)
why are people balking at this number? we've spend 5.5 TIMES this on the war already. If we really wanted to get the middle east by the balls (and PULL) we should have spent this money on the stuff like this. It's better than being the middle east's bitch for my lifetime and my children's.
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armmat 2:39AM (7/04/2008)
You're not the middle east's bitch, you're the US and Israel's bitch. Don't forget that.
They know all to well what they are doing over in the middle east. Everyone thinks the Saudi's are pulling the strings....really?
Don't forget who made the infastructure for oil production over there...it wasn't the Saudis. Don't forget who started this entire oil mess...it wasn't the Saudis. Only an idiot would think OPEC and western countries..particuarly the US...don't collude with each other to do whatever they need to do in the middle east...don't forget for even a moment WHO we are fighting this war for predominantly...country starts with an I and ends with an L....guess who.
Enoch 5:33PM (7/01/2008)
Why is there a cynical undertone to this blog? Someone has to push for the electrification of transportation. If you may not agree with the numbers, but the overall logic is there.
Of course the "do nothing" congress and administration will not be impressed.
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MattKelly 6:10PM (7/01/2008)
Well let's put it into a simpler numer--GM estimates that 1200 strategically placed hydrogen stations could serve 70% of the U.S. population at a cost of about $1-2 million apiece, or $12-24 billion dollars, about what we spend in 1-2 months in Iraq.
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Chris M 2:21AM (7/06/2008)
Project Better Place is looking for a bigger budget as they have a more ambitious plan. Individual recharging stops cost considerably less than H2 refueling stations, but PBP plans many more of them to serve the entire populace, not just a small percentage living in select major urban areas.
But the biggest hangup with H2 cars isn't the lack of infrastructure, it's the cost of the vehicles and fuel. With the high cost of H2 storage, and insane cost of H2 fuel cells, the typical H2FC car is about 90x the cost of the typical electric car. Moreover, H2 fuel costs 5x to 7x more than electricity! Why choose the more expensive H2 option?
Mik_Cal 6:40PM (7/01/2008)
Matt Kelly,
There you are spreading hydrogen bunk-um again. Here we have a thread that is discussing the only serious alternative for land transport and you pump your disinformation into it....
Hydrogen as an energy carrier has a limited usefulness only ON TOP OF an existing battery and grid-electric vehicle infrastructure.
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rubeng 6:43PM (7/01/2008)
MattKelly dropped a decimal point there - it'd be $1.2-2.4 billion, which would be what? 3-6 Iraq-days of spending?
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Fredric 7:26PM (7/01/2008)
I have a question. What is going to power all of these electric stations? Are we not transferring the dependence to the power plant instead of the cars?
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Nikax 7:31PM (7/01/2008)
I didn't watch the 2+ hours of testimony, so question: where is the green electricity coming from in this proposal? If we're burning fossil fuels to make electricity, is there any net gain? PBP's web site makes no mention of this except in the most vague terms.
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SITEiNK 7:36PM (7/01/2008)
Yes, we are transferring dependence... from foreign-sourced oil, to domestically produced electricity.
You could potentially charge your car with your home-based turbine or solar panels - if you wanted to so that you don't have to pay the electric company.
but you would have to buy those parts first.
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SITEiNK 7:39PM (7/01/2008)
nikax,
The main point here, is energy independence, not necessarily the use of the cleanest energy.
They do state that they would like most of this energy to come from renewables like wind and solar.
I think these sources have a way to go before they are the mainstay, it is important that they are a major part of the solution and that research is put into it.
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occ 6:54PM (7/14/2008)
Besides the main point of energy independence, electric cars have the BEST potential of being cleaner in the future, since old power plants get replaced with newer more efficient ones, and renewable, sustainable, clean energy becomes much easier to replace as their cost goes down. And like SITEiNK said, you can easily put solar panels on your roof...people are ALREADY doing this...you dont need to wait for government or industry if you have an electric car.
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Mik_Cal 3:03AM (7/02/2008)
Instead of being dependent on a finite supply of fossil remains of biota from a few million years ago, with electricity you can generate power using about 8 different kinds of renewable energy. You also can use nuclear energy.
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Neil Delm 4:34AM (7/02/2008)
Agassi was behind a disastrous launch with Danish enery giant DONG last year. They had to retract all the promises made and essentially pushed the perception of EV's in our daily lives as personal transportation options further back in time. This promoted the electric vehicle stereotypes from two decades ago and we are now crawling back instead of moving forward full force. There must be other players - even with less money, but with realistic and attainable goals. Agassi has only produced lofty goals and swinging arms - hence, the slightly cynical media text. Obviously the hollowness of Agassi is not lost on some journalists.
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ndu12 4:35AM (7/02/2008)
Agassi was behind a disastrous launch with Danish enery giant DONG
last year. They had to retract all the promises made and essentially
pushed the perception of EV's in our daily lives as personal
transportation options further back in time. This promoted the
electric vehicle stereotypes from two decades ago and we are now
crawling back instead of moving forward full force. There must be
other players - even with less money, but with realistic and
attainable goals. Agassi has only produced lofty goals and swinging
arms - hence, the slightly cynical media text. Obviously the
hollowness of Agassi is not lost on some journalists.
Reply
edwin anderson 7:30AM (7/02/2008)
I watched his (agassi) testimony to congress. I was absolutely suprised how he was able to transform total pessimism by the chairman of the committee to a gidy optomist. Agassi gave us hope of making America strong again! Lets all ask the congress and the president to make the step of electification, the use of bio-gas generation, H3 fusion development and most of all- enegrgy independence!
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Domenick Yoney 1:53PM (7/02/2008)
Regarding the tone of the story, any perceived cynicism was unintended. I thought it was great that he laid all this out for the committee.
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Chris 2:21PM (7/02/2008)
All pessimists need to be blocked out of your mind - I am moving towards a future that is better than what we have today, and it'll happen - trust me. People like this Shai guy, like me, and many of you... know that this idea is fully implementable. Once American's get off their fat a$$es and build Nuclear Power Plants and embrace this future, we will be able to tell the Saudis, Iraq and Iran to go blow themselves up ... like now!
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Gregory D. Foutz 5:16PM (7/02/2008)
I think this should be a done deal.Have Detroit re:tool to build Electric Cars like they did Tanks in the 1940's..Roll out the Infra-structure,Put up the wind generators,Solar devices,Tidal generators,and did I mention Jobs,Jobs and more Jobs (BTW that cannot be shipped overseas!!!)
Any possibility Hussein Obama or Cindy McCain may comment? lol..A solution is over their heads and beyond their compprehension.....
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Roger Pham 5:33PM (7/02/2008)
Ridiculous plan!
Especially when Toyota has problem obtaining enough 1.3-kwh battery packs to make their HEV (1/10th the size required for a BEV).
Far more practical is to drive a 100-mi-range BEV for daily commute (at ~30-60 mi/day), and to rent a gasoline car via an ATM mechanism for more extended driving on rare occasion.
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