Better Place: more partnerships in Japan; electric car parking lot opens in Israel
A few bits of news from the Better Place electric vehicle juggernaut today.
One, Israel's first electric parking lot has opened at Cinema City in Pi-Glilot. Pictured above is Better Place Israel CEO Moshe Kaplinsky with one of the Renault vehicles plugged into the station. So, how does the Better Place battery-swap idea fit in with these charging stations? There is an interesting tidbit in this Guardian article that says that Better Place "expects a lithium-ion car battery to last for 106 miles. Given Israel's small size, the company expects relatively little need for changing batteries." Let's just note for the record that Better Place is OK with not swapping the packs. (The Guardian says the first charging station in Israel is located by a shopping center in Ramat Hasharon, near Tel Aviv.)
The second announcement is that Better Place will join with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., (i.e., Subaru) and "other Japanese carmakers" for a electric vehicle project in Japan (guess the rumors were true). For now, Better Place is building a battery exchange station in the city of Kanagawa for the Ministry of Environment. The government project will start in January and last "three to six months."
Gallery: Better Place Charging Station
[Source: Better Place]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave 5:20PM (12/09/2008)
I wanted a definition of juggernaut. Here is what I came up with:
http://www.answers.com/topic/juggernaut
1. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion or to which people are ruthlessly sacrificed.
2. An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path: “It doesn't assume that people need necessarily remain passive when confronted by what appears to be the juggernaut of history” (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt).
3. Juggernaut Used as a title for the Hindu deity Krishna.
I think you are referring to definition 2. But I suspect that definition 1 applies as well.
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noz 9:05PM (12/09/2008)
Nice to see my hard-earned US tax dollars going to building an infrastructure in a state-sponsored terrorist country.
That's just great.
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meta96 9:16AM (12/10/2008)
I really can’t get it.
1) PBP want to change batteries? Right
2) PBP want to build recharge stations? Right?
3) PBP want to sell change/charge contract? Right?
4) The charging stations are not open for other (non PBP) e-Cars? That means countries (states) are investing in a monopole system? Right?
I like the PBP idea, but I do not like the proprietary infrastructure. Wouldn’t it be better for a country to set up an independent (state, gas-station, etc.) charging system?
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Harvey Grtossman 3:03PM (12/10/2008)
This business model is similiar to the Apple IPOD business model or the cell phone or razor blade business model. concentrate on selling energy and use the car as a loss leader. If they can do this in Israel why can't the knuckle heads in Detroit do the same instead of ripping off the US taxpayer. I say let them go broke like the buggy whip makers did 100 years ago.
Harvey Grossman
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