Better Place Opens EV Demonstration Center in Israel

Better Place Battery Swapping Demo Housed In An Oil Tank

Better Place, the California startup that last month obtained $350 million in funding to help launch a network of battery-switching stations for electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark starting next year, will open a demonstration center in Israel this week that gives visitors a chance to see how battery-switching stations work and to test drive electric cars around a one-mile track.

Better Place, which promotes the idea battery swapping as a solution to EV-range issues, also said Motorola and Computer Associates are among a group of 92 companies that will exchange a portion of their Israeli gas-powered corporate fleets for Renault EVs starting next year.

Better Place also plans to deploy switching stations at Dor Alon gas stations in Israel, the company said in a statement late last week.

Better Place, founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Shai Agassi, promotes the idea that owners of plug-in electric vehicles should be able to lease charged batteries so they don't have to purchase the costly battery packs that propel their vehicles. Such packs can cost tens of thousands of dollars apiece.

Like cell-phone buyers who buy minutes of air time in prepaid monthly or annual packages tailored to fit their individual needs, Better Place customers would buy an electric-drive car and then purchase miles, in the form of kilowatt-hours of energy stored in battery packs that Better Place would supply.

The company got a big boost last month when it raised $350 million in a funding round that was led by London-based investment banker HSBC and included Lazard Asset Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Better Place, which has been in business for less than three years, has raised almost $800 million in funding and, with HSBC taking a 10 percent stake in the company, the company is valued at $1.25 billion.

As a symbolic gesture, Better Place's new demonstration center, which is about 10 miles north of central Tel Aviv, is constructed inside an old oil tank located in one of Israel's last remaining gasoline storage and distribution facilities.

Better Place, whose center's test track will initially accommodate demonstrations of converted Renault Lagunas, estimates that "tens of thousands" of people will visit the new facility this year.

While from the outside of the facility looks like a big concrete drum, on the inside the visitor center is very futuristic. The center includes a specially designed auditorium and an interactive information center in addition to the short driving course.

Upon entering the center, guests will be shown into a 30-seat auditorium with individual screens. The visitors will be shown a video describing the problems inherent to an automobile market based on fossil fuels and the solution that Better Place offers.

Following the screening, visitors will be invited to test-drive an EV in the company of a Better Place employee.

The cars themselves are modified Renault Lagunas and they were brought in from France, together with the French technicians, in time for the launch of the center.

In the future the center will feature Renault's Fluence ZE models, which may well be the first mass-produced electric cars.

Last May, Better Place had its first-ever public demonstration of a battery-switching station in Yokohama, Japan, saying at the time that a customer would be able to exchange batteries at a station in less than a minute.

Agassi estimated that it would take $500,000 - or about half the cost of a new gas station - to build and stock one battery-switching station, and that such cities as Los Angeles and Tokyo would need about 100 locations.

Source: Edmunds.com: