Hawaii to Get Electric Car Battery-Sharing Program
The island state’s small size makes for short drives, which are perfect for electric vehicles, and now an innovative network of recharging stations will make the cars even more convenient.
California-based company Better Place will operate the stations on a subscription-based system. Owners could sign-up for a monthly plan or choose to pay as they use. The company will own the batteries, which can run upwards to $11,000, and loan them out to drivers.
When the battery is low, the driver can either recharge at home or stop by a station to swap-out for another, pre-charged battery. This system, in addition to its convenience, could drastically decrease the cost of buying an electric car.
Better Place, which does not build electric cars themselves, also has plans to install such stations in Israel and Denmark as well, but Hawaii is in the strongest position because of their alternative energy capabilities. The island could relatively easily install wind, solar, wave, or geothermal power facilities.
Photo Credit: Kevin1024 on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
It makes sense to make use of all the natural resources that each geographical area has at its disposal, be it sunny skies, windy climate, geothermal or hydro etc. And Hawaii is the obvious choice for EVs with its sunny weather, short distances and geothermal activity. Hawaii could set a good example and does not even require the Project Better Place model to be implemented.