Better Place moves to Australia
We'll, that didn't take long. The announcement from Better Place about the next country planned for the electric vehicle expansion is here and we're off to Australia. Better Place announced the deal with AGL Energy and Macquarie Capital Group today, and there is more information coming in a conference call tomorrow. The information thus far is that Better Place will deploy an electric vehicle network, powered by renewable energy, that apparently has the potential to power all of Australia's 15 million cars. As an email from Better Place put it: "As the world's sixth largest country, Australia was selected to show that the Better Place model works in any country, regardless of size. If Australia can do it, so can others". Read more here and stay tuned tomorrow for more.[Source: Better Place]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Damian 7:23PM (10/22/2008)
WOOHOO!!
We've been very slow in coming forward down here, only recently ratifying Kyoto and being a massive producer of coal. This announcement is finally some good news ... that Australia can move in the right direction sometimes!
This announcement is very pleasing.
Damo.
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Andy 9:04PM (10/22/2008)
There are a lot of folks whose ideology is against the PBP business model. Many people just don't like the pay by mile idea. Like myself, they suspect they will get ripped off.
If this thing really happens, I will give them big Kudos for getting the charging stations done and a network established. I don't see anyone esle doing it.
I just want a reasonable lease on a battery car with access to the PBP network. I would pay a premium for their electricity and a swap charge. Just don't try to make me pay by the ff..ing mile!
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Peter 9:54PM (10/22/2008)
About time! We are crazy people burning oil when we could of gone EV 10 years ago. I am an electronics engineer working with EV power systems and concepts, I have designed complete EV systems from DC/DC converters to Motor controllers. It is good to see EV being taken seriously. The concept is extremely viable for Australia.
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Robert 6:08AM (10/23/2008)
As a fellow Aussie i am extremely happy about this. Now if only the government, federal and state, get behind this and offer subsidies (in way of reduction of registration) then we'll be on our way.
Congrats AGL and Better Place
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GoodCheer 10:31AM (10/23/2008)
I'm not Australian, but my impression is this:
Australia's population is basically a ring around the outside of the continent, and by and large there are crazy-long distances between the major coastal population centers. One ramification of this layout is that one single connector route ringing the country could satisfy the vast majority of inter-city transportation.
I would suggest that such a route should be by train: 100 mile EVs are more than adequate for moving about within each city. Since going outside the city almost exclusively means going along the coast in one direction or the other, driving your EV onto a rail car seems to me like a much simpler and more efficient way to do it than relying on battery swap stations every 50 miles around the coast.
A huge number of swap stations would be required that only serve personal vehicles, while the rail line would serve personal transportation (your car on a rail car), public transportation (you without your car), and freight transport.
What say your Aussies?
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gorr 1:06PM (10/23/2008)
If ' Better place move to australia ' then what happen to the previous place? Did they succedded in creating a batteries infrastructure with lot of electric cars with many recharging stations ? I guess not, it's just a politics project to provide jobs to incompetants that will get money as long as there will be no real results, LOL. Any political project is that. This is called communist. Capitalism is when a free customer choose his car from who he want without subsidies but respect common sense.
Today there is no common sense available choice, just liquid gasoline and the green cars are just a dream because there is just incompetants in that domain.
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Craig 11:44PM (10/23/2008)
If project better place comes to australia, do you reckon they could find it? That map you've got looks nothing like australia, not to mention the missing island on the bottom.
I suspect that PBP targeted australia since they knew that our car industry wasn't planning on doing a damned thing about efficient vehicles.
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Mark 1:28AM (10/24/2008)
If Project better Place (PBP) causes viable electric cars like the MINI-E and the promised electric Renaults to be available in Australia I'm all for it. I just hope they don't lock up the charging stations only for PBP customers.
I think I would rather own my batteries and put money in the bank regularly for the inevitable day they need to be replaced. I would like to be able to top up away from home and for that would be happy to pay a premium.
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Larry 4:25PM (10/27/2008)
This is good news for the EV scene in Australia. For a while there it seemed like we would be the last country on Earth to get any electric vehicles.
Hopefully this gives the industry a prod in the right direction, and I'll be driving something electric within a few years.
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