Project Better Place Plans Massive Electric Car Rollout in 2011
Project Better Place, the brainchild of entrepreneur and CEO Shai Agassi, in partnership with French automaker Renault, is an increasingly popular electric car service model that looks to the “service station” concept for electric cars. By developing an infrastructure of “swap stations,” drivers can swap discharged batteries in their electric cars in little more than five minutes, and be on their way. Pilot projects are already underway across the globe, including Denmark, Israel, Japan, Hawaii, California, and Australia.
Renault and Better Place announced this week plans sell up to 160,000 electric cars annually throughout Denmark and Israel starting in 2011.
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Renault will produce three models of all-electric vehicles: a sedan, a compact, and a van. In Denmark the EV’s will cost up to $38,000 (200,000 Kroner), and drivers then sign up for a monthly service contract, modeled after cellular phone service agreements, for access to the batteries and swap service. “It will be like signing up for a mobile phone contract,” said Jens Moberg, CEO of Better Place Denmark, the Danish subsidiary of the transportation firm. The cost of the service plan has not yet been disclosed (nor the cost of the EVs in Israel). Under the service plan, batteries can then either be charged at home, taking a few hours, or swapped at swap stations in a few minutes.
About 100 swap stations are initially planned for Denmark, with many scattered around Copenhagen, the Danish capital. 50 or 60 stations should be available by the time the United Nations meets in Copenhagen for the upcoming COP15 Climate Conference in December. As the program expands, should too will the number of swap station, with nearly 1000 expected to be deployed in Denmark in coming years.
Moberg said the lithium-ion batteries will cost $11,760 to manufacture in 2011, as compared to the $30,000 it costs for the battery in a Tesla Roadster. As production increases, the cost of battery manufacture should fall, said Moberg.
Image credit: BetterPlace.com
Electric car production has really taken off. I wonder when it will start to compete with petrol car production.
How far can you travel on one battery at highway speeds? I would really want to buy one of these if they could make one that does a decent amount of distance at a good rate of speed. I have always been fascinated by electric cars and hope that one day we can depend on them.
“Plans Massive Rollout in 2011″
Plan their bankruptcy the moment government subsidies run out. That’s all this is. No real business justification. Batteries are 10+ (???, maybe never) years away from the kind of dependability and range most consumers expect from a car. Do the research if you doubt my word.
Blogmeire,
Your simply wrong on so many fronts. The battery exist today, Tesla is using it.
Blogmeire - Any technical hurdles with battery technology aside, It’s not clear to me that you understand how Better Place works.
Is it clear to anyone how Better Place works? All I’ve read are stories like these that state “The cost of the service plan has not yet been disclosed.” These guys are in it for profit, not to save the world. Most likely they will start at a subsidized rate and ramp up from there when they feel they need to start making money.
Reality Check…
Just add up how much your cell phone plan will cost at the current level for the next 5 years and magnify that by a factor of 10, and then tell me you’d rather lease than buy. Even at a conservative factor of 5 you’ll be paying the purchase price of the original battery pack every 5 years.
It’s not that I don’t think this is a good idea. I just don’t know how many people are going to want to make $650+/mo payments on a $38,000 vehicle, plus $350+/mo lease to be able to drive it.
The notion of swap stations allows to get around the battery recharge time (normally 4 or 5 hours). That should help with widespread acceptance.
Fast charging stations will allow quick charging without the added complexity and expense of swappable packs, swapping machines, and stockpiling extra packs. Longer range battery packs will also lessen the need for a fast charge or swap. It’s a bad idea and a poor model.
Well, any production of electric cars is welcome.
I wish them success in Israel and Denmark.
Personally, I don’t like the idea of paying a monthly fee to use a battery-swapping service.They compare it to a cell phone plan. I hate my cell phone plan and it’s very very expensive. Battery swapping sounds very expensive and I don’t want to be a paying slave to some car company.
Once I buy my car, I don’t want to pay any more fees to the manufacturer. I’m looking forward to buying an Aptera. That vehicle is going to rock! It’s a True plug-in vehicle that gets over 100 miles per charge. I can live with that because I usually drive only 30 miles a day. No need to swap out batteries and pay some ‘cellular type” payment plan. True transportation freedom is coming soon! Aptera is the way to go!
[...] Better Place, based in Palo Alto, California, has gotten the green light from the Japanese government to move forward on installing its battery swap stations for use by Tokyo’s taxi fleet. The company said it has received an undisclosed financial investment from the Japanese government for its “Tokyo pilot project,” which is intended to validate the feasibility of the battery swap stations by installing switchable batteries into the world’s first four completely electric taxis. [...]