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Better Place: Shai Agassi on Gavin Newsom's Radio Show

May 4, 2009 By 3 Comments

Newsom Agassi

If you missed the discussion last week, we had the Mayors of two major cities—San Francisco and Portland—weighing in on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In the coming weeks, we’re looking forward to hearing from other cities about their plans for EV infrastructure, but we also wanted to make sure the private sector had a chance to chime in.

Today, we’re happy to present a guest post by the CEO of Coulomb Technologies, an industry leader in EV charging infrastructure. In the post, CEO Richard Lowenthal discusses the importance of smart features you can only get with a networked charging grid.

By chance, the CEO of major competitor Better Place (Shai Agassi) appeared on SF Mayor Gavin Newsom’s radio show over the weekend. Both Coulomb Techologies and Better Place are in the business of providing the infrastructure to recharge electric cars, but each company is taking a fundamentally different approach.

Coulomb is primarily interested in providing “ChargePoints,” which are individual electric car charging units, whereas Better Place wants a “total solution” that completely eliminates range anxiety by offering both charging units and fully-automated battery swapping stations.

The topic is considerably complex, so we’re looking forward to hearing more from these industry leaders.

Listen to the interview with Shai Agassi here: 

Gavin Newsom 05-02-09.mp3

You can also listen to Mayor Newsom’s Green 960 radio show online or subscribe to his weekly policy discussions on iTunes.

Image Credit: Better Place

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About Clayton B. Cornell

Clayton B. Cornell was formerly a professional blogger as Lead Writer for Gas 2.0, Important Media’s blog covering the future of sustainable transportation, and was covering biofuels and green car technology for Important Media (formerly GreenOptions.com) since the beginning of 2007. Before GO, Clayton ran the training program for one of the EPA’s largest public toxicology information libraries at Oregon State University, which was fulfilled under a $2-million Federal grant. He became a biodiesel enthusiast after experimenting with small-scale biodiesel production in OSU’s chemical engineering lab, and has extensive hands-on experience with diesel cars and trucks, including the practical use of biodiesel and straight-vegetable-oil (SVO) as alternative fuels. Clayton graduated from the University of Utah with honors, receiving a degree in Biology and Chemistry. On the side, Clayton likes to spend his time at the beach or in the mountains. He’s been a professional river-guide, amateur beer judge, and world traveler, and currently lives in San Francisco.

Comments

  1. kilawinguwak says:
    May 6, 2009 at 8:35 AM

    shai agassi is a visionary. i can see how charging stations will work for the short term, but if you want to get rid of gas emissions, you want to provide a complete solution – not just for the consumers, but also for the labor sector.

    that’s what agassi has.

    Reply
  2. kilawinguwak says:
    May 6, 2009 at 8:35 AM

    shai agassi is a visionary. i can see how charging stations will work for the short term, but if you want to get rid of gas emissions, you want to provide a complete solution – not just for the consumers, but also for the labor sector.

    that’s what agassi has.

    Reply

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