Better Places is a venture-backed international company that develops and sells battery charging and battery replacement services for electric cars. It is officially based in Palo Alto, California, but most of its planning and operations are controlled from Israel, where both founders Shai Agassi and its main investors live.
The company opened its first functional filling station in the first week of December 2008 at Cinema City in Pi-Glilot near Tel Aviv, Israel Delivery of first customer Renault Fluence Z.E. electric cars powered by battery switching technology started in Israel in the second quarter of 2012, and at its peak in mid-September 2012, there were 21 battery-swap operations open to the public in Israel.
Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel in May 2013. The company's financial difficulties were caused by mismanagement, extravagant attempts to build toeholds and run pilots in too many countries, the high investment required to develop charging and swapping infrastructure, and much lower market penetration than predicted by Shai Agassi. Less than 1,000 Fluence Z.E. cars deployed in Israel and about 400 units in Denmark, having spent about US $ 850 million in private capital. After two unsuccessful attempts at post-bankruptcy acquisition, the bankrupted receivers sold the remaining assets in November 2013 to Grngy for just $ 450,000.
Video Better Place (company)
History
Launch
The company was launched publicly on October 29, 2007, as Project Better Place, by Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of the company at the time. According to Agassi, his vision was inspired by a question Klaus Schwab asked at the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: "How do you make the world a better place by 2020?" As of January 2011, it has raised $ 700 million, and about a third is spent on setting up a battery switch station. Also, some states and states offer tax deductions.
Better Place announced the deployment of an electric vehicle network in Israel, Denmark and Hawaii in 2008 and 2009. The company plans to deploy infrastructure on a country-to-state basis, saying it was in talks with more than 25 additional regions around the world.. Australia, Ontario, Oregon, and California also announced the deployment of Better Place electric car network.
In January 2008, Better Place announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Renault-Nissan to build the world's first Electric Recharge Grid Operator (ERGO) model for Israel. Under the agreement, Better Places will build power recharge networks, and Renault-Nissan will provide electric vehicles.
Bankruptcy
In early October 2012, Agassi resigned from his role as CEO of Better Place worldwide, and was replaced by Evan Thornley, CEO of Better Place-Australia. Agassi briefly survived on the company board, but a week later he resigned from that position as well. A few days after Thornley's appointment, Better Place asked its investors for an emergency funding round, totaling about $ 100 million. On October 29, 2012, Ynet reported that Better Place that week would lay off 150 to 200 of its 400 staff in Israel for seeking funding to address its cash flow problems.
In late January 2013, Thornley was dismissed by Chairman Idan Ofer, and Dan Cohen was named the acting CEO by the board. As a consequence of financial problems, the Australian launch was suspended, as the company decided to concentrate on two existing markets. However, on May 26, 2013, Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel. Following the decision of the Board of Directors of a global company, Better Place Danmark A/S also decided to start the bankruptcy process on the same date.
The company's financial difficulties were due to the high investment required to develop a charging and swapping infrastructure, approximately US $ 850 million in private capital, and the market penetration was significantly lower than expected by Shai Agassi, who expects 100,000 cars on the streets of Israel in 2010. Less than 1,000 Fluence ZE cars are deployed in Israel and about 400 cars in Denmark. Under the Better Place business model, the company has Fluence Z.E. battery, so that the court liquidator should decide what to do with customers who do not have battery ownership and risk remaining with useless cars.
Post-bankruptcy acquisition and liquidation
In July 2013, efforts to acquire Better Place were made by the Sunrise group composed of businessman Yosef Abramowitz and the Association for the Advancement of Electricity Transport in Israel. Court filings indicate that the acquisition will be worth 18 million shekels of Israel ( US $ 5 million ) for Better Place assets in Israel, and 25 million shekels of Israel ( US $ 7 million ) for its intellectual property, held by Better Place Switzerland. The deal was canceled by the court after the Sunrise group failed to make the first approved payment of 3.52 million shekels ( US $ 976,300 ), even after the renewal.
In August 2013, the Central District Court ruled that Better Place Israel would be sold to Success Assets Ltd., owned by Tsahi Merkur, for 11 million shekels ( US $ 3 million). To influence the acquisition, Merkur will sign a personal guarantee within seven days for the full amount of the acquisition, and a personal guarantee for indemnity that includes a guarantee made by a subsidiary of Better Place Israel to the Ministry of Transport. Within 21 days, Merkur will deposit to a company-specific manager an opinion on a property in which a commitment to register a liens up to 5 million shekels will be placed. On September 30, 2013 he has to pay 2 million shekels. On October 17, 2013, the deal was canceled after the Success Asset failed to make the required payment.
In November 2013, the court-appointed beneficiaries decided to sell the remaining assets from the Better Places in some sections and liquidate the business.
Maps Better Place (company)
Business model
History of the concept of battery exchange
Steam cars, cars, internal combustion engines, and electric cars emerged as major competing technologies in the late 1890s through the 1920s. The concept of convertible battery services was first proposed in early 1896 to address the limited range of operations of electric cars and trucks.
The concept was first practiced by Hartford Electric Light Company through the GeVeCo battery service and was initially available for electric trucks. Vehicle owners purchase vehicles from General Vehicle Company (GeVeCo, a subsidiary of the General Electric Company) without batteries and electricity purchased from Hartford Electric via exchangeable batteries. Owners pay variable costs per mile and monthly service fees to cover maintenance and storage of trucks. Both vehicles and batteries are modified to facilitate rapid battery exchange. This service was provided between 1910 and 1924 and during that period the vehicles using it covered more than 6 million miles. Beginning in 1917 a similar service operated in Chicago to Milburn Light Electric car owners who can also buy vehicles without batteries.
Electric forklift has been using swapping batteries since at least 1946 and a rapid battery replacement system is implemented to help maintain 50 electric buses at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.
Business Model Better Place
Better Place applies a business model in which customers subscribe to a driving distance that is similar to the mobile phone industry from which the customer contracts for minute airtime. Initial costs of electric vehicles may also have been subsidized by ongoing revenue contracts as long as mobile phone purchases are subsidized by per minute mobile service contracts. Better Place's goal is to allow electric cars to sell for $ 5,000 less than the average price of petrol cars sold in the United States, or the impact of electric cars will be minimal. For example, the Prius hybrid has been on sale for 13 years at a price of $ 4,000 more than other gasoline cars and has captured less than 2% of the worldwide car market.
The Better Place approach is to allow manufacture and sale of different electric cars separately from their standard batteries in the same way as a gasoline car sold separately from its fuel. Gasoline is not bought in advance, but it is purchased several times a month when the fuel tank needs to be filled. Similarly, Monthly Place Better payments will include "fuel" electricity costs including batteries, daily charging, and battery replacement. Better Place is to enable customers pay gradually for battery costs including electrical power, battery life, degradation, warranty issues, maintenance, capital costs, quality, technological advances, and anything else related to the battery. Cost per distance will include battery leasing, charging and exchange of infrastructure, sustainable power purchase, profit, and investor capital costs. All battery issues will be handled by Better Places which will then bundle costs and charge their customers every month to provide all the infrastructure.
Better Place electric car charging infrastructure network is based on smart grid software platform using Intel Atom processor and.NET Framework, or comparable vendors. This platform is the first of its kind in the world and allows a Better Place to manage charging hundreds of thousands of electric cars simultaneously with automatic recharging away from the peak demand clock of the day, preventing overload of the power grid from the host country. Better Place will be able to provide electricity to millions of electric cars without adding a single electric generator or transmission line by using intelligent software that oversees and regulates the recharging of electric cars connected to Better Place.
Better Place encourages governments to mandate the use of international standards and open access to recharge across fill networks to facilitate competing networks. Standardization efforts like SAE J1772, however, have not resulted in global consensus as of August 2009. A better place displays Charge Spot charging stations that use connectors with pin layouts similar to SAE J1772-2009 but are placed in non-standard, plug-in triangles. They also feature wall charging stations using IEC 62196 Type 2 receivers. Battery packs switching outside the Better Place network are not allowed. Better Place said it had pre-sold enough contracts to make the first network deployed in Israel profitable at launch.
Energy source
Agassi stated that the company's plan is to have a grid of electricity generated entirely by renewable energy from solar arrays and wind farms if needed, thereby canceling the "long-smokestack" accusations against electric vehicles that rely on non-renewable power sources. However, achieving 100% renewable energy goals will depend on the local electric grid energy source.
In Israel, where the first placement of the first place occurs, the power grid is largely based on fossil fuels, making the vision of renewable energy practically impossible in the short run.
Car and battery
The first prototype car is a Renault Lagoon with a battery instead of a fuel tank and an electric motor rather than an internal combustion engine. Batteries for electric vehicles are Lithium iron phosphate ion devices. The distance from a car that runs only with one battery is from about 160 kilometers (99 mi) to 190 kilometers (120 mi). By replacing the battery at the battery switch station, the range between longer charging stops is limited only by the geographical distribution of the battery exchange infrastructure.
The second demo car is Nissan eRogue, electric car based on Rogue Renault-Nissan, between sedan and SUV in size.
The Renault Fluence Z.E. announced at the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 15, 2009 as the first electric car available on the Better Place network using replaceable batteries. Shai Agassi says that EVs should be priced at $ 5,000 less than the average petrol car price to be successful. In April 2010 Renault announced that sales of Fluence Z.E. scheduled for 2011 in Israel, Denmark and throughout Europe. In August 2010 Better Place announced a non-binding order of 100,000 Renault Fluence ZE and four months later Better Place claimed to have sold 70,000 cars from the order, a year away from its public network launch.
The battery pack mounted on the floor in an electric car is designed to be converted robotically in less than two minutes, which is faster than the average refueling, which allows battery replacement services as proposed by Better Place and Tesla Motors. Better places Place expected batteries at a cost of between 4 US Â ¢ and 5 Â ¢ per mile during their lifetime, provide a car with a range of 160 km (99 mi) per charge, perform for a 2000 refill cycle, and last for 8 years.
Battery switcher
With the area around the cities covered by the battery switch station, also called the battery exchange station, the driver will have an electric car with an unlimited driving range for long distance travel. The QuickDrop battery switch system will activate the Renault Fluence Z.E. battery, the only vehicle placed on the Better Place network, to be exchanged for about three minutes at a dedicated battery exchange station. The actual robotic battery replacement operation takes about five minutes at the deployed station. While each exchange station would cost $ 500,000, the CEO then of the Better Place, Shai Agassi, said that the cost would be half the price of a typical refueling station.
To access the battery switch station, Better Place customers must swipe their membership card. The remaining process is fully automated, similar to car wash, so the driver does not need to leave the car. At the battery demonstration station where Better Place is, the robotic arm removes the discharged battery and replaces it with the full one.
During 2010, Better Place operated a demonstration battery transfer station in Tokyo that allowed three specially equipped cabs to replace their empty car battery batteries for 100 miles (160 km) of fully charged in 59.1 seconds on average. Better Place used the same technology to swap batteries that used F-16 fighter jets to load their bombs.
Better places, battery switch stations are claimed to support several types of batteries of all types of electric cars as long as batteries can be removed from under the car. A battery switch station uses only 15 batteries that allegedly have the ability to exchange batteries for 2,500 EV's. Better Place claims to have a battery station installation team that can install one battery switch station in just two days, one every 25 miles on each route and at the same cost of 7 days of oil in the United States, Better Place claims it could cover all the United States with battery switch station and all required infrastructure.
Battery replacement versus DC fast charging
The main alternative technology for battery replacement techniques promoted by Better Place is fast DC charging. A national/medium fast charging infrastructure is being used in the United States that by 2013 will cover the whole nation. The DC Quick Charger will be installed at 45 BP and ARCO locations and will be available to the public in early March 2011.
Better Place claims that its subscription model has a customer that effectively pays only the cost of unlimited mileage without battery ownership issues, while the fast charging model involves customers who bear all battery purchases, ownership, maintenance, and replacement costs, in addition to the cost of electricity to recharge battery.
Better Place claims that charging is much faster and battery switch stations will be needed than the current number of fuel stations, as drivers will usually recharge ("refuel") electric cars in homes, offices, shopping centers, commercial areas, and like. Drivers only need an alternative if they forget to recharge, can not get to the filling point, not enough time on the cargo, or non-stop driving more than 160 kilometers (99Ã, mi), typical of long-distance vacations and business trips.
The fast DC charging at that time is much slower than a 59-second battery switch that Place claims, but while Better Place battery switch stations cost about $ 500,000 each, the fast DC charger that EV/project must be implemented will cost you only between $ 25,000 to $ 40,000.
The demonstration project
Yokohama
On May 13, 2009, Better Place aired their battery transfer station to the public in Yokohama where BP was invited by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. The replacement of the indicated battery station is set to the same as the automatic car wash station. The vehicle drove on a hill and aligned on a swinging pedestal. The battery shuttle then moves and rises to the bottom of the vehicle. It makes contact with the battery, releases it, lowers it, and removes the exhausted battery from the car. The filled battery pack is then inserted. The consumed battery is returned to the charging chamber. The battery switch finished in less than two minutes and the vehicle drove away. Battery replacement is designed to require less time than filling the gas tank. To keep the electric vehicle in good demand, Better Place will try to keep the vehicle competitive with other cars in the market. By building infrastructure that makes electric cars more practical, they hope to increase demand.
The first prototype battery switch station opened in Yokohama, Japan on May 14, 2009, designed by Yoav Heichal, chief engineer for Better Place research and development group.
The Company entered into an agreement with Dor Alon Energy to install a battery replacement point, which will run alongside the normal business of refueling petroleum. CEO of Dor Alon, Israel Yaniv, said, "Dor Alon is the first energy company that will allow future owners of electric car owners to get electric refueling services at gas stations We consider this agreement with Better Place to be a strategic partnership that will create value real and innovation for the company's activities. "
Tokyo
In April 2010, a 90-day battery-powered electric vehicle demonstration project was launched in Tokyo, using three Nissan Rogue crossover utility vehicles, converted into electric cars with replaceable batteries provided by the A123 System. The battery switch station placed in Tokyo was more advanced than the Yokohama switch system shown in 2009. During the three month field test, EV taxis collected over 25,000 miles (40,000 km) and swapped batteries 2,122 times, with an average battery lock time of 59 ,1 second. Nissan decided to continue testing until the end of November 2010.
San Francisco
In October 2010 Better Place announced its commitment to launch a three-year demonstration program with electric-powered cabs in the San Francisco Bay Area, in partnership with the cities of San Francisco and San Jose, California, taxi operators and carharing programs, regional and state institutions, consumer organizations and EV, and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The program will deploy and operate four battery-switching stations in San Francisco to the San Jose corridor to support the replaceable battery taxi fleet. In December 2011, Better Place made no further progress statement in the program.
Dutch
A battery-powered 10-battery demonstration project was launched at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam in 2012.
Investor
In 2010, the company has amassed $ 700 million from various sources including VantagePoint Venture Partners, Israel Corporation (33% ownership), Israel Cleantech Ventures, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Acorns to Oaks II, Esarbee Canada Investment, GC LLC Investment, Musea Ventures, Ofer Group, Vyikra Partners, Wolfensohn & amp; Co. and Maniv Energy Capital. At the end of 2007, Agassi began raising US $ 111 million in the A-Series funding for the project, one of the largest and fastest rounds in history. Investors include VantagePoint Venture Partners, Israel Corporation, Israel Cleantech Ventures, Morgan Stanley, and private investors led by Michael Granoff from Maniv Energy Capital. In 2009, the company raised an additional US $ 135 million for Denmark's Better Place, including investment from DONG Energy, a leading utility in Denmark. After the announcement in Israel, Better Place said it has launched its network in Denmark, Australia and at two US locations - Hawaii and Northern California. The company said it was in talks with more than 25 countries around the world.
In Australia, Better Place announced an agreement with AGL Energy and financial adviser Macquarie Capital Group to raise A $ 1,000,000,000 and start building a network of electric vehicles (EVs) powered by renewable energy. According to Better Place, the model for sustainable mobility will help Australia move towards oil independence. With the seventh highest rate of car ownership per capita in the world, the country has nearly 15 million cars on the road after adding more than a million new cars in 2007.
In January 2010, when Israel Corporation completed its investments of US $ 100 million in the company, a consortium of investors signed a Series B funding round to invest further US $ 350 million in Better Place, citing their belief that "Better Place has technical and commercial solutions to enable the mass adoption of electric cars in the near future." The B-series is led by HSBC, which is invested US $ 125 million , and includes all A-Series investors plus Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Lazard Asset Management. The deal is one of the largest financial investments of its kind by HSBC, which gets seats on the board of directors of Better Place and about 10% of the company's shares.
From the early days, doubts were raised for the effectiveness of Better Place's centralized model to provide charging infrastructure, with some anticipating that models would not be widely adopted.
Partners
In May 2008, the company presented its electric car prototype at a press conference in Tel Aviv. Shai Agassi estimates that the company's partner, the Renault-Nissan alliance, is likely to invest $ 500 million to $ 1 billion to develop replaceable battery electric cars.
Further partnerships with other manufacturers were not announced, and Peter Rawlinson, VP and Chief Engineer for Vehicle Engineering at Tesla was quoted as saying "Different batteries fit different cars.It's too simple to see batteries as isolation,"
Better Place also announced plans to develop an electric charging network in the city of San Francisco and the state of Hawaii.
The Australian financial group Macquarie says it will work with Better Place to fund the construction of a plug-in station, and the Australian utility AGL Energy is committed to powering the station with renewable electricity.
Response
In March 2008, Deutsche Bank analysts issued brilliant reports about the company that its approach could be a "paradigm shift" that caused "major disruption" to the automotive industry, and which had "the potential to eliminate gasoline engines altogether." Three months later, the same agency issued a second report, discovering "electric vehicles destined for growth far more than perceived broadly". The same report states that "[i] improvements in battery technology will enable increased power, increased electric propulsion, and greater improvements in fuel economy."
On June 26, 2008, Shai Agassi testified before the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The trial, titled "$ 4 Gasoline and Fuel Economy: Automotive Industry at the Crossroads," deals with the future role of the automotive industry and the federal government in combating gas prices and fuel economy standards proposed in response to the enactment of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA ) in 2007.
In 2009, CBS Money Watch cast doubt on the Better Place business model, stating that it would cost $ 500,000 to build a battery switching station
Market and pricing
Australia
In Australia, a launch of 500 charging stations is planned to begin in major east coast cities before expanding nationally. It is estimated that this will provide coverage that is comparable to the 13,000 gas stations that exist when operating. The total cost of this launch is claimed to be between $ 1 and $ 1.25 billion AUD.
The first filling site was installed in Canberra in late 2011, but by January 2013, after fewer than 20 public places have been installed, the launch was halted and the Better Place board decided to concentrate on two existing markets, Israel and Denmark.
Better Place is also the preferred provider for home charging stations and dealers for Holden Volt, with a partnership announced in July 2012.
China
In 2011, Better Place announced an agreement with China Southern Power Grid Company, the eighth largest utility company in the world. Before the end of the year, Better Place will open a battery switch station and a joint education center in the southern city of Guangzhou. Shai Agassi said that China Southern Grid embraces the battery switch as the main tool of range extension. Chairman of China Southern Grid Zhao Jianguo said that the battery switch model may become mainstream in China and that the joint visitor center and battery demonstration switch project with Better Place will help promote the adoption of electric cars in China by allowing potential customers to experience this innovative solution..
China's Southern Power Grid pilot project and other joint activities are expected to explore the benefits of replacement battery electric cars and the supporting network infrastructure that may deliver to the power grid in the CSG service area, which spans five provinces, one million square kilometers, and 230 million people in southern China.
State utility Grid Corporation of China is planned to build over 2,351 electric and battery-swap charging stations by 2016. It will have 220,000 charging posts, but they do not show how many, if any, of them will be battery-swap stations. Grid Grid's grid grid research center director commented "The construction of large-scale charging stations costs 20 to 30 million yuan ($ 3.05-4.57 million) and small-scale costs of less than 10 million yuan, but costs more than 100 million yuan to build battery-swap station. "
In April 2010, Better Place signed a memorandum of understanding with Chery Automobile, China's largest independent automaker, to develop a prototype for electric vehicles to be used in state-sponsored pilot projects.
Denmark
Better Place partnered with Denmark's leading energy company; Dong Energy, in EUR103 million Euro (770 million Denmark Kroner) investments to introduce electric cars and infrastructure to Denmark. The country currently generates 20% of its electricity from wind energy, but is mostly exported because at present there is no way for utilities to store excess power. Using a Better Place model, Dong hopes to take advantage of existing electricity and electric vehicle batteries to harness and store the abundance of power generated by the wind, and distribute them appropriately for transportation consumption.
The Renault Fluence Z.E. sold in Denmark at a price of 205,000 DKK (EUR27,496 or US $ 38,378 ) including VAT plus monthly charges for replaceable batteries. Consumers pay a one-time fee of 9,995 DKK (EUR1,341) for personal filling stations and customers are offered a choice of five fixed-price switchable battery packs based on kilometer driven per year. For more than 40,000 km (25,000 mi) a year, the monthly fee is 2,995 DKK (EUR399) per month. Commercial launch of the network by the end of 2011.
The first battery switch station in Denmark, of which 20 are planned to be deployed across the country as part of a charging infrastructure network, was inaugurated in June 2011 on 55Ã, Â ° 44? 1.5? N 12Ã, Â ° 27? 36? E in Gladsaxe, near Copenhagen. Fluence Sales Z.E. starting in late 2011, and 198 units sold in Denmark until December 2012. Cumulative sales until April 2013 reached 234 units.
As of December 2012 there are 17 fully operational battery switch stations in the country, allowing Danish customers to drive anywhere across the country with electric cars. On May 26, 2013, and following the decision of the Board of Directors of Better Place global company, Better Place Danmark A/S decided to start bankruptcy proceedings. Since the battery is owned by Better Place, Renault announced it would honor the existing agreement for about 500 customers who bought their electric car through Better Place.
Hawaii
Better Place deploys about 80 charging stations and 154 charging points on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island, and has nearly 700 customers. The operation of the charging station was obtained in March 2013 by OpConnect. No service interruption is expected due to bankruptcy of Better Places.
Israel
Israel is the first country in the world to partner with Better Place to build an electric car infrastructure. Shai Agassi, former CEO of Better Place, claims that by 2016, plus or minus a year, more than 50% of cars sold in Israel will be electric.
Battery switch stations should be open to customers almost every week in 2012. The map shows the "orange circle" of a handful of battery-switch stations available in June 2012, and shows with a "gray circle" the full construction of the expected battery switch station at the end year.. The Baran Group signed an agreement with Better Place stating its intention to build 51 battery switch stations during 2011 to cover all of Israel. But progress is not as fast as planned.
According to the Financial Times, about 400 companies in Israel signed a letter of intent to begin diverting their fleets to the Better Place electric car network as soon as the service was available. It represents a potential of 80,000 electric cars. From 100,000 Renault Fluence Z.E. that Better Places agreed to buy from Renault, the company claims to have signed about 70,000 orders, most of them coming from commercial fleet customers.
Better Place launched the first battery-exchange station in Israel, at Kiryat Ekron, near Rehovot in March 2011. The station should be the first of about 40 stations to start operating in the near future. The battery exchange process takes five minutes. The company also established more than 1,000 functional charging points for cars and thousands more should be in place by the end of 2011, according to CEO of Better Place Israel.
The order for Renault Fluence ZE in Israel began in July 2011. According to Better Place, their regular maintenance fee customers will be about 40% less than for regular family cars, insurance will also be lacking at around NIS 3,700 a year, and comprehensive electric and car solutions service will cut the annual vehicle maintenance cost by 20%.
The first shipment of Renault Fluence Z.E. takes place on January 22, 2012 and about 100 electric cars are allocated to Better Place employees. Better Place is planning a gradual delivery process because infrastructure across the country has been completed. Delivery of retail customers began in the second quarter of 2012. In mid-September 2012, there were 21 operational battery-swap stations open to the public in Israel. Cumulative sales until July 2012 reached 300 cars, and by the end of October, only 490 cars had been sold, setting the company's target of 4,000 customers in June 2013 to be a difficult destination. In October 2012, Better Place signed an agreement with Elco to supply 125 cars worth 15m NIS. 125 Renault Fluence ZEs will ship until 2012 and 2013. In December 2012, a total of 518 cars were sold in the country. In the first four months of 2013, a total of 422 cars were sold, bringing the total to 940. Alan Gelman, chief financial officer said in January 2013 that the company has changed in recent weeks with major sales to the fleet and days of not selling cars have ended , on May 26, 2013 the company filed for bankruptcy in Israel.
Customer Qualification
Better Place wants electric car customers who can make a successful transition from anxiety to a sense of ordinary reach within the company's growing infrastructure. During the sales process, Better Place aims to educate and assess each customer's electric vehicle suitability. The company will exclude frequent travelers on irregular routes that reach the country. Finally, Israel should have sufficient battery switch stations and refueling stations in parking garages, shopping centers, hotels, commercial areas and elsewhere, to service most drivers.
At a minimum, customers require special off-road parking at home and, for higher mileage drivers, Better Place will install charging stations at people's workplaces. Customers with higher mileage may travel 130 kilometers (81 miles) each way between home and work. Customers with lower distances may only need a place to fill in their homes, with rare battery replacements.
Israel Electricity Network
Electric cars are not permitted by law to directly connect to Israeli electrical outlets. Better charging stations are having intelligent network interactivity that automatically changes the charging process time away from peak power demand times. Most critics claim that this is an attempt to monopolize the charging of car batteries, and it turns out the opposite effect, and has made many potential customers in Israel uninterested in buying Better Place cars.
Awards
Edmunds.com selected developers of Coulomb Technologies and Better Place battery charging infrastructure as the recipient of the first annual Breakthrough Car Award. In 2010, Shai Agassi was ranked 28th in the list of Top 100 Global Thinkers published by Foreign Policy magazine, due to his efforts to make electric cars successful in the mass market.
Similar projects
A number of companies have announced plans to install a network of charging stations. In France, ÃÆ'â € lectricitÃÆ'Â © de France (EDF) and Toyota announced plans to provide refilling points for PHEV on roads, roads and parking lots. EDF also announced a partnership with Elektromotive, Ltd. to install 250 new charging points for six months from October 2007 in London and elsewhere in the UK. Coulomb Technologies aims to deploy ChargePoint Charge Station networks throughout the United States.
In March 2009, Tesla Motors announced a partnership to deploy battery exchange stations between their existing Supercharger networks to serve their Model S car platforms. Tesla swapping abandoned battery citing low demand.
The Angel Car Nation-E system is a portable unit, containing a lithium-ion battery, which stores energy and is used as an emergency charger for powered electric cars. It is designed to be a solution for "anxiety ranges" without the deployment of significant new infrastructure, and provides fast charging services for all known Evs equipped with fast charging sockets, including hybrid cars.
See also
- Battery for electric vehicle
- Charging station
- Electric car
- Use of electric cars by country
- EV Project
- List of modern plug-in production vehicles
- Plug-in electric vehicle
- Tesla Motors
- Renault Fluence Z.E.
- Shai Agassi
- Vehicle-to-grid
References
https://web.archive.org/web/20140714222625/http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-1000875072
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4403479,00.html
External links
- Website Better Places.
- Renault Fluence Z.E. official website
- Experience electric cars in Israel after May 2012 delivery of Renault Fluence customers
- Horizon Elektrik: Video Shai Agassi at FORA.tv Australia
- New York Times article: The Shooting of the Moon and Us by Thomas L. Friedman, September 2010
- Cosmos Magazine Articles: Anatomy of start-up failure - what's wrong at Better Place, by Alan Finkel, December 2015.
- Financial Times article: Electric cars are all raging in Israel By John Reed
- EurActiv article: Q & amp; A with CEO of Better Place By John Reed
- Driven: Shai Agassi Hate Plan to Include an Electric Car on Street articles in Wired magazine
- Danish electric appliances in Many magazines
- VantagePoint Venture Partners
- Israel Corporation
- Israel uses electric cars
- New Model: Swap N 'Go
- Better Place the First Battery Charging Place in Europe.
- Tsahi Merkur provides the assets of a Better Place, Abramowitz to maintain IP.
- Tsahi Merkur's successful asset to photograph the company for NIS 11 million, defeating the US-Canadian-Israeli group.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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