‘Better Place’ Electric Car Network Here In 2009?
‘Community-ness’ And Making A Difference: Towing The Line
November 25, 2008GetUp Call To Act On Internet Censorship
November 27, 2008Have you seen the reports that the ‘electric vehicle (EV) network company’ Better Place will soon enter the US market in partnership with three Californian mayors and that they are also setting up on the Australian east coast?
What Will Better Place DO?
The Silicon Valley company plans to establish EV support networks around the world – its EV recharge grid powered by renewables – and sell access to the grid similar to the way mobile phone companies sell service contracts. It expects that electric cars will be available to the mass market by 2012.
In December they will begin:
- installing EV charging outlets in parking lots, homes, and buildings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area
- coordinating regulations and standards across the region
- establishing government programs and incentives to promote the purchase of EVs and installation of charging outlets
- linking the network to local air and transit quality programs
Better Place In Australia
Greenbiz.com reported in October that Better Place will work in partnership with AGL Energy and Macquarie Capital Group in Australia. Israel and Denmark have also announced similar agreements.
Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne will become EV network hubs linked with electric highways created by building battery switch stations along the routes between the cities.
“If it can be done between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, you can see the same thing happening between LA, the San Francisco Bay Area, all the way up to the Seattle region,” says Better Place CEO Shai Agassi.
Better Place plans to begin tests in Australia in 2009, go live with mass market launches in Israel and Denmark in 2011, followed by Australia.
Let’s hope the economic situation doesn’t affect these plans..
2 Comments
It is pleasing to see such developments, but again it is a pity that it needs to be overseas technology. Projects like the local Deakin T Squared Car have attracted overseas interest but to my knowledge no local companies are looking at building a prototype. I think that part of the problem in Austrlia is that the mainstream media only cover technology if they can create a human interest story out of it (as with medical breakthroughs) or if they can dumb it down enough to fit television news formats. Thus many Australian developments that the public would be interested or even excited about ‘go through to the keeper’ because the mainstream media is not interested (or capable?) of explaining them to the public.
You can find a good description of the Deakin Car at:
http://www.whitehat.com.au/Australia/Inventions/DeakinT2.asp
Can’t wait for this to happen here – bring it on!